City of Rain
by Wolf of the Crescent Moon
Summary: In the year 2000 at midnite 5,000 people around the world fall into unexplained coma´s. The 5,000 awake in a city´s streets. The city is the size of New York, and it never stops raining here. How will they get home? Can they?
1. Chapter 1: Little Ashley

City of Rain...

Chapter One: Little Ashley...

Michael was in his robe sitting in his chair in his usual room. His three bedroom apartment was currently dark like the expression on Michael´s. The lines under Michael´s eyes were ever growing like a dark grand canyon. They wouldn´t go away and Michael wouldn´t sleep much. He pulled a small chrome rectangular lighter from his robe pocket and then he pulled a cigarette from the box on his windowsill. It was a simple box with a red banner on a white carton. The only word on the box was ¨Cigarettes¨. A plain case that contained plain cigarettes. Michael put the cigarette in his mouth and pulled the switch back on the lighter. It produced a small yellow flame, the only light in the room. The tiny flame met the cigarette and an even small orange glow lit up inches from Michael´s face. He inhaled deeply for tonight was like any other night. He exhaled with a ¨Huuuuuuuuuuha¨ and the smoke flew out.

The room was pretty simple, it was a room with four walls (12 feet by 25 feet), and a ceiling fan. The carpet was extremely thin and a light brown. There were deep brown curtains pulled back and held by a rope. It was dark out and he was twenty stories up. He watched the rain fall in bands that had never ended and never would. He inhaled deeply again and the nicotine kept him company as he watched the rain. It hit the window and ran down it flowing freely only to be evaporated and fall again. Michael knew the rain well for it was all that was here. Rain, buildings, and about 5,000 people.

It is said that Hell is a word all to kind to describe the desolate landscape of this land. After all, everybody remembers earth, they remember how good they had it there. The City of Rain...as it has come to be called is lacking in everything. There is no technology like there was back at home. All the food and supplies is just there, clothes, food, shelter, it is just all there for the taking. There are of course technology for everyday life but no one understands how it runs. There are washing machines and ovens so forth things from everyday life, but there is no electricity. If you turn on a light it will stay on until the bulb burns out...but there are no power lines. Same for gas and water they just appear. Another factor is the amount of rain that falls, it never stops, it never floods either, for as soon as the rain hits the ground it vanishes and goes back to the sky.

Michael took one last puff of his cigarette and put it out in the ash tray on the window sill. The last bit of smoke rising from it reminded him of the pathetic human scum that lived here. They´d give anything for one more anything. He was a detective just trying to scrape out his living with a meager wage going from job to job. His eyes were full of veins since he wouldn´t sleep often, but it just didn´t seem to faze him. He considered lighting up another cigarette to pass the time when the inevitable question hit him. What was the point? There was no going anywhere, he wasn´t even sure time passed here. It´d been 12 years since the ´accident´ so what was time going to change? Nothing, Michael wasn´t even sure what kept him going you couldn´t die very easily here that is what made it worse. Sure jumping off a building ended in death...but since there are no weapons here it is much harder to die. Even cigarettes and alcohol to any extent didn´t faze Michael.

The door to the room opened and the cigarette smoke, and stuffiness just flowed out of the room for a second. The fresh air coming in made its way to Michal´s skin. He didn´t even turn around to see who had come in.

¨I see you are skipping sleep and staying up all night smoking again?¨ an all too familiar voice said with a tone of caring. It was Kim, she was his secretary that got his messages/assignments. She also took care of the apartment and Michael very well.

¨You know me, I don´t like to sleep.¨ Michael said pulling out another cigarette. He had decided to go for another cigarette.

Kim was a caring woman. She was 23, and stood at five foot eight. She had long red hair and often wore it pulled back when she went to bed. She only let it hang loose when she was very worried about something. She walked over and sat down in Michael´s lap. She leaned back against Michael reaching over and grabbing the lit cigarette from his hand. She tossed it into the ash tray and leaned back on Michael. He smelled that she had just showered and she smelled like strawberries.

¨Why did you just make me waste a cigarette?¨ he asked quietly his voice just above a whisper. Just enough to make his vocal cords vibrate slightly. She closed her eyes and reached grabbing his hands and putting them around her stomach.

¨I think I smell better than they do, so I did you a favor and came and sat on you. I´m not moving until tomorrow morning so you might as well go to sleep.¨ she said soothingly.

Michael wanted to take her offer. She´d been very good to him. He´d shown up at the door bloody from a fight or passed out drunk and she always dragged him to his bed and dressed him in clean clothes and let him lay. He pulled her closer so her hair was touching his nose and he said ¨I guess I can sleep just this one night.¨

¨You are going to have to do better than that or I´m outa here.¨ she said flirting with him.

¨I wouldn´t want that...not one...bit...¨ Michael said drifting off to sleep. She slowly got up and opened the window and tossed the carton of cigarettes down onto the street below. She then closed the window and wheeled the chair to Michael´s bed where she dragged him off his chair and under the covers. She then climbed in herself and put her arm on Michael´s chest. She could remember telling Michael that she loved him, time after time, and he´d reply with the same thing over and over. ¨I love you too...but love can´t exist in Hell so let´s just promise to be together forever instead...¨ The line wasn´t at all original but she smiled every time he said it and went about her chores. Michael was easily fifteen years her senior...but she fell in love with him on that day they met...

As she slept she dreamt of the day that she and Michael met. She was in the streets of an alley. She was cold and wet and trying to hid from thugs who wanted to rape her. There is no justice in the City of Rain but she wanted to escape so badly. Even if escape prolonged her death and exit of this world she just wanted to be away from those god-awful men. They knocked over a trash can that she was hiding behind and the leader of the three was a tall bald man. He picked up by what little rags of clothing she had and he flung her. She didn´t have the strength to fight back, nor the will too. He threw her to the ground and she landed with a thud in a puddle soaking her even more. She started to cry again and another man a tall scrawny man wearing some torn overalls had ripped off her pants. She was in nothing but her underwear and small white tank top now. Along with her pants her last bit of hope had been ripped off her.

The third man slapped her and yelled at her for running away. The tall scrawny man threw her back onto the ground. Her head hit first as the back started to bleed. The third man was about to pounce on her when something strange happened. The cement where she lay moved! It carried her backwards to a new man she couldn´t see well. He had a cigarette in his mouth and his right eye was shining. The gang members drew some broken pieces of pipe and they ran at him. He simply braced himself and spread his legs and arms like he was going to catch a bull by the horns.

The rain was falling like usual and it clouded her vision as she wanted badly to watch but she was fading form consciousness. She was cold and shivered, she was covered in trash, mud, and soot. You couldn´t tell she had red hair as it was covered in mud and trash. She was in her underwear and a small white tank top. She just wanted some place dry to die quietly. Michael was the man that saved her and before the three men raped her. As the men ran at Michael he brought his hands in grunting and the two light posts nearby bent down and wrapped around the back two men! He then stomped his foot and the sewer lid in front of him formed into a giant spike the size of a Christmas tree. The metal plate shot up and quickly going up from the man´s digestive track all the wall through his skull. Blood splattered everywhere but landed in the water so it washed away into a nearby sewer grate.

As the other two men screamed for mercy and meaningless apologies, Michael quickly looked at one who was apologizing slightly slower than the other and instead making excuses. One such was,

¨It was dark man! We didn´t know who she was!¨

This made Michael angry as he walked over and jerked the mans pants off. He saw a pair of boxers which he also ripped off. He then lifted his right hand to his mouth and pulled out the cigarette he´d been smoking. He pushed it in on the man in a spot that would hurt the most. The man screamed bloody murder before Michael made an open palm hand and then crunched it to a fist. As he did such both light posts squeezed tighter and tighter on the men. They screamed until the bloody end when their heads literally popped off. The carnage would make anyone throw up, but in this world it was just life...or rather the end of it. The lungs and the whole respiratory system had come up through the throat and now came spewing out like a squeezed hot pocket. It wasn´t until later she found out how Michael did all that. He is a ¨user¨ a special group of people that when they came here found they had the power to change things around them...the only rules they had with their abilities was they couldn´t change the rain even if they wanted to.

Michael then walked over to Kim and leaned down asking if she was hurt. She was shivering but tried to answer

¨Mmm-my ll—e-leg is br-br-brok-broken...¨ she managed to stammer.

¨It´s ok, they are dead and won´t do any more harm to you. I´m going to get you back to my place and call a doctor. Then we´ll get you anything you want ok?¨ Michael said in a reassuring tone. He picked her up with his arms and carried her that way all the way home. He had changed a trash can lid into an umbrella for her to hold as they walked home.

¨Wh-wh-why di-did y-y-you--¨ Michael quietly said

¨Don´t waste your strength talking. I´ve seen many things here, this place fits every religions description of Hell. I just decided that since I had the power to change something, I would change the outcome of that situation you were in. Besides, I´ve been looking for a secretary so don´t get all sentimental on me.¨ he said. She fell unconscious after that and didn´t remember anything until he got her home, bandaged up, and nursed her back to health.

A week later she had woken up before him. She got up and using her crutches she found by the bed, she went into the kitchen. A blinking clock read 10:00 A.M. and he was still in bed. So she made him breakfast a plate of hash browns and sausage. She took it to him in bed and he woke up smelling it.

¨Thank you for saving my life...I owe you my life. You said you were looking for a secretary and I´ll gladly fill that position if you´ll also let me be your housekeeper. This place is a dump!¨ She said smiling and laughing for the first time. Michael never smiles but he looked her in the eye not touching the food.

¨Is something wrong?¨ she asked.

¨Yeah...I´d like you to eat them with me...¨ he said making room on his bed. She blushed but climbed on and got a spare fork and ate them with him. Since then she´d been taking care of him, and she´d fallen in love him. It is a known fact that there has not been one marriage since everyone woke up in the city streets soaked in rain...but it´s also a fact that she´d like to have the first marriage with Michael...she didn´t care if she was here or back on earth as long as she was with him.

Her dream of how they met ended as she heard a hatch open and an envelope slide down and hit the floor. It had been 8 hours since they had went to bed and Michael should sleep in but he made her promise him one thing. If a job came, she was to alert him no matter what time it was. She grabbed the vanilla envelope and took it to the bed hesitating to give it to him. He awoke as if by some psycic force.

¨I have a job?¨ he asked.

¨Promise you won´t leave until you´ve at least had a cup of coffee.¨

¨Just please prepare it while I scan the file.¨ he said tearing open the envelope. As he ran his fingers over the paper envelope he got a paper cut. He put the finger in his mouth while he used his other hand to finish tearing the envelope. He pulled the paper out and read the contents aloud to himself.

¨Missing persons case...missing 2 days. Just two days and I´m already getting this, person must be a high paying client...sixteen year old female name ashley...five foot...shoulder length curly pink hair...goodness pink...reward is 8,000 dollars if she´s alive...¨

Kim came in with a white mug streaming. It was warm and felt good against her cold hands. The room was not particularly cold but her hands were always a little chilled when she woke up. Michael took the cut with a near silent ¨Thanks.¨ then he went back to browsing the file. He had the mug grabbed by the sides and not the handle. It felt especially good against his worn out hands. He raised the mug to his mouth and took a nice long sip of coffee. Kim always added a little bit of cinnamon to the coffee to make it, in her words ¨Christmasy¨ just a little cheer to this dark depressing world. It

didn´t make much difference to Michael, but he appreciated the effort. As the coffee went from the mug to his mouth it was nice and warm and woke Michael up. It went down his throat heating it up and giving him his voice back he lost for a few minutes until he fully woke up.

He finished the cup of coffee and got dressed. He wore a plain white T-Shirt and jeans with the knees torn out. Over this he wore the oldest most worn out trench coat. It was long enough to drag on the ground and old enough to fall to pieces but he insisted on wearing it. He walked over to the hamper dropping his night attire in. His night attire was simply his robe and a pair of boxer briefs. It made a phumph as it hit the other clothes. He walked into the kitchen putting the mug into the sink and Kim asked him

¨Are you sure you can´t wait for some pancakes?¨ Michael merely shook his head and put on his hat which was just as worn as his trench coat. It was wrinkled down the center on top and had a hole on the side patched with a gray patch he had crudely sewn on. He turned and looked at Kim, who had the words ´I will wait forever for you to return´ written in her eyes, and cleared his throat to say ¨This case won´t take long. If you want to, we can go out to eat for a late lunch when I return.¨ he said. She quickly lit up in a smile and squealed

¨Re-really?! Us? You and me go out to lunch?¨

Michael shifted his weight and said ¨You are an adult, if you don´t wanna go with me you certainly don´t have to.¨

Kim quickly shook her head and made a sad expression ¨No! I would love to go with you. I am just overjoyed that you would consider us going to lunch together. I love you so much but you just...never seem to respond sometimes.¨ she said wiping some tears as she closed her eyes and smiled.

Michael sighed and said ¨I love you too...but love can´t exist in Hell so let´s just promise to be together forever instead...¨

Kim smiled and closed her eyes to reach behind her and put her hair into a ponytail, as she did so she said ¨One day I´ll make you drop everything but the first four words. Until that day, like any other day I´ll wait for you.¨ she said lowering her hands and holding her hands together over her apron.

¨Come back safely.¨ she said smiling. Michael nodded then opened the door and walked down to the stairs. The hallway was narrow but he and Kim were the only people in the building. It was a 30 story apartment building he had claimed and only he and Kim used it. He began his slow descent down the stairs thinking of how to begin finding the missing Ashley...Eight gran was much cash for a measly return job... As he passed a window he looked outside to see something he knew was coming...rain. He finally made it to the bottom floor. The tiles greeted him by squeaking under his shoes. He wore simple brown slip ons he had found in a store. They stayed on his feet good. He walked down the open lobby which was all large white tile. He didn´t mind it but one day figured that it would either be red with blood or black with paint.

As Michael walked out into the rain it welcomed him with it´s wetness. Michael walked down the sidewalk not seeing another soul until he got to a familiar alley. The smell of damp human greeted Michael´s nostrils as he snorted. He didn´t so much care for the smell, it wasn´t all that different from wet dog but he didn´t mind that either. He walked up to a man with a burlap sack behind him and greasy black hair. The man looked like a filthy hobo. He had the option of cleaning up by taking an apartment and clothes but he didn´t. He looked up at Michael and said.

¨Long time no see compadre.¨ The man smiled and opened the sack and tossed Michael a pack of cigarettes.

¨Double dose of nicotene the way you like it. So cowboy, you here to try some good drugs or you sticking to the wimpy cigarettes?¨

¨They get the job done.¨ Michael said lighting up one instantly.

¨Right, so what do you want? You don´t say anything unless there is something else you want.¨

¨I´m guessing it´s Rez today right?¨

¨Correct, now what can I do ya for?¨ Rez said in a mexican accent.

Michael new Rez suffered from multiple personality disorder so he always had to be cautious and ask who was out first. Rez was a sleezy drug dealer who didn´t do drugs, he just sold them. Zer was the other half, he was a gentlemen and would always clean up then stroll the city picking up information or making observations. The rain hitting the nearby dumpster made a clang sound as Michael leaned against the wall taking a puff on his cigarette.

¨I´m looking for a girl. She´d be shorter and have pink hair.¨

¨I see...still doing grubby detective work, pink hair rings a bell. The Red Fan Gang had a girl with pink hair a night ago.¨

¨Is she still alive?¨

¨I dunno, they have a pot making operation going on about a block down. It´s an entrance that goes down into a basement, they make the pot out right in front of everyone obviously since there is no law here. Be careful, if you use your abilities on them they have a bodyguard who also has those abilities.¨

Michael looked up at the sky wondering if this was worth it. He did need the 8,000 for food bills so he decided to go with it.

¨I´ll just kill him. Who is it?¨ Michael asked casually

Rez shifted his weight and coughed. ¨It´s...Cane...¨

Michael slapped his hand over his face. ¨Oh dang it! Cane?! Jeez he´s a pain in the butt to fight.¨ Michael slumped down to the ground for a second to reconsider his decisions. Cane was not a person he liked to get involved with. Their last confrontation had left him bloodied up and bruised for days. Kim had begged him not to do battle with Cane again. Cane had lost the last fight but he always put up a good fight and was constantly improving. Michael also remembered the most dangerous thing about Cane...he was also a user. Michael´s face was showing an expression of confusion, one of being caught between two choices. The rain continued to fall and Michael was getting unnecessarily wet. Rez looked at him and sighed. He kneeled down next to Michael and said ¨Look, if you´re tight on money I´ll loan you some. I mean your lady doesn´t like you to fight. Especially if it is Cane...how much is the reward?¨

Michael shook his head sending the accumulating rain drops all over. He stood up and the light hit his eyes revealing flames of determination.

¨I have been here twelve years and I have never lost a fight. I´ve backed down or avoided fights but I have never lost. I´m going to their hideout and if Cane attacks I WILL defend myself.¨ Michael said grabbing his collar of his trench coat and popping his neck. He looked to Rez and handed him 100.00 dollars. He then scoffed and said ¨Your info isn´t free, not to mention your loans are killer on interest rates. I wouldn´t trust them for a second.¨ Michael said.

¨Hey, I was just offering and helping out a friend in need that´s all.¨ Rez said laughing and coughing. His cough revealed a little blood but he didn´t seem fazed by it. He took a drink of his alcohol and laughed some more. Michael turned to leave, he was in no hurry to get to the hideout...but he needed to hurry or the girl might be dead.

Running down the sidewalk, the puddles Michael ran through splashed up on him soaking the bottom of his coat and his jeans even more. He finally made it to the stairs that lead underground. He was huffing, it had been a while since he had ran or fought.

¨Alright, I´m going down there and I´m not coming out without a body...or a corpse.¨ Michael said taking one last deep breath. He descended down the stairs. He walked a good couple flights when the smell of pot hit him.

_They must be making pot to sell. Rez won´t mind if I shut them down because that´ll lessen his competition. The red fan gang was a small group of eight men but they were all body builders so I´ve got to watch it. I´ll only defend, I won´t attack right away..._ Michael thought.

The front of Michael´s foot hit the cement floor first and made a light tap echoing off the walls. There was a dim light from above, the room had three small lights total each hanging from a thin wire. The men were busy packaging the pot when they noticed him. ¨Who the heck are you?!¨ one said as they all stared at him. Michael made his way deeper into the room, it was all cement everywhere. It was about 30 by 50 feet total and Michael was making himself aware of the dimensions in the event he had to fight.

¨I´m looking for a girl with pink hair. Answers to the name Ashley.¨ Michael said his voice echoing off the walls and fading into the darkness that was the men´s hearts. He started to sweat as the men laughed. A bead of sweat formed at the base of his hair and fell down to his collar of his trench coat. The men looked at other and whispered. Michael picked up everything...

¨Yeah she was fun...¨

¨Oh she begged and I liked that. It´s sexy when they beg...¨

¨Heh heh heh...¨

Michael was getting mad now. He controlled his anger but asserted his position and intentions by raising his voice slightly.

¨Where is she? She has pink hair and answers to the name Ashley.¨

¨You are one stupid detective you know? You come down here without any money, no drugs, no body guards and you ask the questions? I don´t think so, you see she did answer to the call Ashley once...heh heh heh...now she answers to the grim reaper only. So I´ll don´t know if it´s the fumes of the pot or what but I am feeling generous. You go ahead and head back up those stairs and tell your client to shove it. Then get a job at a restaurant. That will pay the bills.¨ the assumed leader said. He stood at seven feet and Michael assumed he weighed 230 pounds. He was ripped too, his muscles were bulging since he wore no shirt.

¨I´ve no intention of taking your offer. Just give me her corpse and I´ll leave nice and quiet like.¨ Michael said showing no sign of backing down.

The men had gone back to working but the boss tossed down his bag and frowned. He walked right up to Michael who stood at ease.

¨Now I didn´t hear please. Again I make note of the fact you bring no money, drugs, or bodyguards and you still make orders. You should have taken my offer. You want her corpse? It´s over in that bag by the pot, if you want to try and get it.¨ Michael didn´t see Cane anywhere, but he didn´t think that he would assume Cane was gone. He started to walk towards the bag but before he made it past the boss he had to duck because the boss produced a hammer and swung horizontally at Michael.

Michael ducked just missing the hammer and he sumer salted forward. In an amazing form of acrobatics he then put his hands flat to the ground and spread his legs horizontally and spun fast. His legs caught the boss behind the knee cap dead legging him. The boss fell to his knees and Michael got up and punches him hard to the left cheek. The man flew into the wall and fell to the ground. He got up swearing and wiping the blood from his face.

¨You shouldn´t have done that you maggot!¨ he yelled raising the hammer about to bring it done vertically. Michael saw this coming and quickly uttered

¨I relieve you from this Hell into the Hell of the afterlife in the realm of Satan.¨ He made a T shape with his body and brought his fists in grunting as they met. From the opposite wall a rectangle the size of the boss´ head extended at amazing speed. It smashed his head into the other wall closest to Michael. As it smashed a sickening CACK! was heard and blood splattered on Michael´s face and clothes.

The other men looked a little worried now. One said

¨Take her! We´re sorry! We were just looking for a good time! I swear it!¨ They weren´t tossing him the bag so Michael figured that they were faking. A wisp of wind warned him of the attack that was about to take place. His eyes widened and out of the corner to daggers flew towards Michael´s head.

_Weapons don´t exist naturally in this world, it´s another user! Do I manipulate the ground to form a shield?! No! It´s to close I have to dodge it! _These thoughts flew through Michael´s head as he moved to the right hitting the wall. The daggers flew by cutting small bits of hair. They flew onward and caught a man from the gang in the arm.

¨What the freak is wrong with you?! You missed!¨ the man yelled jerking it out.

A voice appeared as a large figure appeared from the darkness. Michael made out his eyes because one of the light bulbs shined and reflected from them. Michael saw the little gleam that showed up on the eyeball.

¨Hey Michael, it´s been a while. I see you killed the man who hired me.¨ Cane said walking further into the light.

¨You were behind that oddly place tapestry. That figures, you waited to see if I was hostile, this shows that you obviously weren´t going to fight unless you had to. That´s why you waited correct?¨ Michael asked

Cane shifted his weight to his back leg and scoffed. ¨You think you´re pretty slick coming up with little explanations to make yourself feel more assured aren´t you? I waited because I was ordered to you idiot. I have no fear of you or anyone. However if my boss died I was ordered to kill whoever did it. He paid me in advance you see.¨

¨Yeah, those hookers he offered you must have made you pretty happy for you take a deal like that.¨ Michael said with a dry irritated tone.

¨My transactions are none of your business, however it is your business to know that I´m going to have to kill you now for a revenge payment as part of my contract.¨ Cane said getting into position to charge Michael. The men behind Michael chuckled and he heard one say, ¨Oh he is in for it now. This guy may be a user but Cane will obliterate him.¨

The silence that followed seemed to be eternal as Michael started to sweat even more now. His eyes detected movement as Cane rushed him running his hands along the wall to make spikes shoot out next to Michael. Lucky for Michael he detected this a fraction of a second early and did a back flip landing on his hands and then coming down and laying flat on the floor. Dozens of spikes flew overhead. One made a slit in Michael´s trench coat. Another slit the back of Michael´s neck slightly. Cane continued his charge now grunting as he pulled a medieval style broad sword from the wall. He leapt up into the air and put his feet on the hand guard and drove downward aimed at Michael´s neck. Anticipating where he would aim, Michael slapped the ground with his right palm making a round pole like extension from the opposite wall shoot out and tip the sword slightly to the right. Michael turned his head sideways to catch a gleam of light reflecting from the broad sword as it stabbed the ground an inch to the right of his eyes.

Michael thought of his next option. He could slither cement up to the hilt of the sword rendering it useless, but that would be impossible as a rule of manipulation stated that an object could not be manipulated if it was touching another user. The force of the two user´s would contradict canceling any effect. _Geez, he just had to fight. Cane is faster and stronger than me and his reaction time is to fast for projectiles so that leaves out long range tactics. _

_I´ve simply got to get him in hand to hand combat. _Michael thought rolling away from the blade and Cane. ¨Whats the matter? Getting cold feet and running away already? You made it clear that you want the girl and that is why you killed the boss instead of running away. You and I both know that you could have rolled backwards and run up the stairs and gotten away. Instead you struck back making your position to get the girl back known to the gang and myself.¨

¨I will not leave without that corpse. It´s worth eight gran to me. You don´t scare me either. Last chance Cane. You lose every fight we have and you know it. Back off now or I WILL kill you this time.¨ Michael said.

Cane obviously ignored the warning as he fell flat back against the wall and slapped his palms against it with a little WHAP. A two large blades extended at Michael´s waist level and currently 5 feet apart. They came inward making a scissor effect on Michael. Michael stamped his feet and rose two cylinders of concrete out of the ground to block the scissors.

¨Very good keeping your hands on them and making good use of the rule of manipulation that states-¨ he was cut off by Michael slamming his fists against the wall behind him shooting out the blades at Cane. He then ran forward quickly, shielded from attack by the blades. The light from the blades reflected back on Michael´s eyes revealing his fiery determination. Michael leapt into the air and did a summer salt coming down with his leg extended to deliver a kick to Cane.

Grunting and working quickly Cane dodged left doing a cartwheel. The blades cut cleanly through the wall going all the way in so no part stuck out. Michael came down kicking air and instead kicked off the wall that the blades hit in. He flew back eight feet and landed on flat on his feet. He was panting as it had been a while since he had fought. He didn´t want to use ´it´ though unless he absolutely had to. Though Cane was a user he couldn´t summon ´it´ for some odd reason. However, he was just as deadly without using ´it´. Cane leapt sideways flipping and throwing the broad sword at Michael. As soon as his hands met the ground four long spike extensions from the walls surrounding Michael shot out. The spike extensions came from where each wall met the other in the crevasses.

Quickly calculating the odds of his options Michael made his choice realizing the broad sword was slower than the spikes. He drew his arms in slipping out his trench coat and ran forward. The spike like extensions met each other stabbing through Michael´s coat.

_Kim is going to hate sewing that..._ Michael thought. He clasped the broad sword flat palmed and stopped it. He tossed it behind him and said

¨Come on Cane, stop this. There is no point in continuing. Why is this contract so important to you?¨ Michael said panting.

¨It is simple, one: I hate you and want you dead, and two: I was paid quite well.¨ Cane replied charging forward at Michael. Before Michael could react Cane had shot forward and landed a good punch in Michael´s gut. Michael quickly folded and spit out saliva. Cane then made contact with Michael´s right cheek pushing Michael sideways. For a final in the combo he grabbed

Michael´s leg and flung Michael to the ground.

Michael groaned and shook for a second coughing up blood. ¨I did always win in physical strength, speed, and stamina though. I don´t know how you always managed to barely win.¨ Cane said

Michael had a bad headache now. The room was blurry as he squinted trying to make sense of something.

¨Looks like I win this one.¨ Cane said quietly stamping his foot and making a spike fly down from the ceiling at Michael´s heart. What happened next was to fast for even Cane to comprehend and react to in time...

In an instant Michael had summoned his ´it´ and rose spinning to cut the spike in half with it. He then kicked the top half of the spike at amazing speed. It shot up and cut Cane across the cheek. With a little blood flowing out Cane wiped his cheek. ¨There it is...your weapon. For some reason, every user with the exception of me is able to summon a special weapon that they can´t alter. It is suited to them and is unique to them. These weapons can´t be copied or manipulated.¨ Cane said crossing his arms.

¨CANE! I DON´T CARE WHAT SPEECHES YOU MAKE OR WHAT YOU SAY! I WILL NOT LOSE!¨ Michael shouted. He charged forward revealing his lance that was about 6 feet long total. The blade part of the lance was itself only one and a half feet long but deadly sharp. Cane raised a fist and lowered it sharply bringing down a column to block Michael´s charge. The lance was engulfed in an orange aura and it cut through the pillar as Michael flipped and spun bringing down the lance to cut Cane open vertically. Cane fell back against the wall. After he did so a vertical tear in his shirt appeared.

¨This was a favorite of mine...¨ Cane muttered

¨It doesn´t matter, go back to where you got it, you know everything reappears over night in this city.¨ Michael said landing and delivering a kick to Cane´s face. He didn´t seem fazed and instead reached behind him and pulled a dagger from the wall. He punched forward with his other hand and Michael blocked it vertically with his lance. Cane responded even faster time wrapping his arm around the lance and bringing in the dagger to stab Michael. Michael bent back, but not far enough as the dagger cut into him right under his left lung.

He grunted and Cane took advantage of the opportunity to make another punch to Michael´s forehead. He flew back dropping his lance with disapeared with a POOF and a small cloud of smoke. Flying parallel to the ground Michael saw Cane running after him in slow motion. He summoned his lance again but it was much harder on him. He had hit his limit. His stamina was failing him, he had manipulated too much and his body was wearing down. Cane saw this and ran even faster. Michael concentrated on aiming for Cane´s head but couldn´t focus clearly for being so exhausted. The end of the lance shot forward at blinding speed revealing it´s hidden ability to Cane. Connected by a thick bar of orange energy the lance shot forward at blinding speed. Cane did not see it coming until it hit him. Instead of going through his head it made contact and cut through Cane´s left shoulder about four inches down into it. It pushed him back into the opposite wall slamming his body into it.

Cane groaned as he hit and slowly crumpled to the floor. Michael himself dropped the lance and fell to the floor landing on his back. He slowly faded from consciousness but remained slightly awake. Cane slowly pulled the lance from his shoulder groaning loudly the whole time. He dropped it to the floor and it disappeared with another POOF. He grabbed his shoulder which was bleeding profusely and he got up grunting. Cane walked limped over to Michael and groaned loudly as he snapped his fingers and the ceiling dropped a very small dagger into his hands. ¨I kept waiting for you to display a hidden ability with that weapon. It is said that every user´s weapon has a hidden ability or two. Some change...shape...others...you get the point. I guess you chose a good time to reveal that one...however, I just have to lean down and...slit your throat now and I win...¨ Cane said smiling.

Michael had a little bit of fight left in him but he felt like he had no stamina left. Still he looked up and saw his victory trump card.

¨Gee, those pants...look...loose on...you.¨ Michael said quietly. At the one moment that no part of Cane was touching the pants Michael shot his hand forward manipulating the pants and making two thin spikes shoot through his thigh´s both the left and right. Cane collapsed cursing the entire way down before hitting the ground and falling unconscious.

¨Pressure...point...¨ Michael said. He knew he had to get up, he had used the last bit of his energy to manipulate those pants but somehow he slowly got up. The men were gone, they must had ran out, but they took the pot with them. Michael limped over to the body bag and confirmed Ashley was in it. He unzipped it and saw a bruised face with a broken jaw bone. Her pink hair was covered in blood and sweat.

Michael felt nausea fill him as he zipped the bag and slung it over his shoulder. ¨She is just another victim, hopefully, if there is such a thing, she is in a better place.¨ Michael uttered limping towards the steps. The room was splattered with some blood now. The heavy smell of pot still lingered as Michael left. As he climbed the stairs slowly the smell of dampness hit him. He pulled out the file from his trench coat he had recovered. He had put it back on holes and all. He read the address and walked that way. _Odd enough there are street signs here...they have the most casual names as well it´s almost as if humans were here at some point...or this place was created by an omnipotent deity as a Hell..._ Michael thought to himself dragging the body bag. His left eye he kept closed because his face was swelling from the punches he took. He was also bent slightly as he walked from the shot to the gut he took.

¨Here...we are...¨ Michael uttered knocking on the door. It was one of those town houses build between two tall buildings. It was three stories tall as a woman answered the door. She was kind of pudgy and looked heavy set. Micheal brought forth the body bag and said,

¨Delivery...¨

The woman looked at him as if it some kind of joke but then quickly sobered up to the thought of a dead daughter.

¨No...please...no no no no no no no!¨ the woman said breaking down into tears and unzipping the bag to reveal Ashley´s bruised and beaten face. She cradled the body bag instantly and and rocked back and forth sobbing.

¨No, no no no no no.¨ she kept chanting quietly as if to bring her back to life.

¨Ma´am she´s dead. The red fan gang probably drugged her, then kidnapped her, and raped her, then beat her to death. She was in that bag when I found her.¨ Michael said. The woman stopped rocking and slowly climbed to her feet still cradling the body.

¨Did...sob..you kill the men that did this to her?¨ the woman asked.

¨They had a body guard that was a user...as you can see.¨ Michael said showing her his wounds.

¨I killed the gang leader but during the fight with the bodyguard the others got away.¨

The woman broke into a whole new set of tears and between sobs asked ¨How much do you charge for revenge killings?¨

¨I don´t do revenge killings, I simply do recovery of information or people/items. You´ll have to hire a bodyguard for those services.¨

¨YOU´RE A COWARD! YOU FOUGHT A USER! A USER JUST TO LET THE OTHERS GET AWAY! AND YOU REFUSE TO TAKE PAYMENT FOR REVENGE KILLINGS?! IF YOU KILLED A USER YOU CAN KILL A FEW MORE GANG MEMBERS! COME BACK WHEN YOU HAVE THEIR HEADS!¨ The woman yelled trying to shut the door. Michael caught his foot in the door and shoved it open making the woman stumbled back and fall on her butt.

¨Ma´am I´m here for my payment. You said 8,000. I went through an awful lot to get this corpse. Now get me my money please.¨ Michael said. She produced a bundle of cash and threw it at him.

¨Take it and leave me be you stupid coward!¨

Michael counted the money to make sure all 8,000 was there.

¨I can´t say that I am sorry for you loss, well because I have seen it to much before...I can only say, stay safe. This is a dangerous world.¨ The woman grabbed a book from her book case and threw it at Michael. He grabbed the door slamming it shut. He heard a WHUMP on the other side. He walked very slowly home. He finally made it to his building and walked through the rotating door. He feet squeaked as he dragged one leg across the tile floor of the lobby. As his feet made contact with each step Michael cursed the fact that there were no elevators in this city. The rain clicked on the windows as he walked by them up the stairs. It took a total of fifteen minutes for him to climb the 28 stories to his floor. He was beyond exhausted and his mind was on ´auto pilot´ as he now was on all fours slowly crawling to his door. He stood up and the blood rushed to his head making him dizzy. He fell on the door with a THUNK and a minute later Kim opened it. He fell into her arms covered in blood, water, and exhaustion. He was two seconds from falling unconscious and he knew this so he uttered ¨I am sorry, I can´t take... you out to a late lunch... Can we reschedule for whatever meal is up when I... wake up?¨ Michael uttered falling into unconsciousness.

Kim held him close to her and took off his coat and saw the blood and holes ¨I gues you will want that sewed, and cleaned. I see you are cut...I´ll have to stitch that up...and you´ll want a clean robe as well to lay in bed with. I will get it done, and we´ll postpone lunch until you wake up, but only because I am madly in love with you. You know where you would be without me hon?¨ she asked silently and knowing she wouldn´t get a response.

She dragged him to the bed and clothed him in a robe. She then pulled back the covers and covered him up. ¨Good night, at least one good thing came from this case, you are getting some well deserved and needed sleep.¨ she said closing her eyes and silently giggling. She loved this part, he was asleep and she got take care of him and watch over him...like an angel. She wasn´t an angel because she was only human.

¨I´ll settle for lover instead of angel.¨ she said kissing him.


	2. Chapter 2: A Rose Without Pedals

Chapter Two: A Rose Without Pedals...

Kim was in the kitchen humming as she put away some groceries. She hummed a little tune, it was shame that she was probably the only optimistic person involved in Michael´s world. Michael awoke in his bed groaning as he was still sore.

¨I see you have woken up sleepy head.¨ Kim said smiling.

¨How long was I out?¨ Michael asked silently reaching to his nightstand for a cigarette and muttering as he didn´t find his box.

¨Looking for your cigarettes? You had then in your trench coat pocket that somehow got ripped. I´ll assume you got into a fight, I´ll base that theory on the fact that you passed out at the door and were covered in blood. Anyway when your coat ripped so did the cigarettes.¨ Kim said leaning against the frame of the doorway.

Michael groaned, his system was craving some nicotine badly. He especially needed some since he was in some pain. He never liked taking drugs or medicine back on earth and here was no different. He usually just smoked until he felt better, in this case he would need to go through about 3 cigarettes he estimated.

¨I really need to get a cigarette or I´m gonna feel sore all day...¨ Michael said.

Kim sighed and looked at him in the eye

¨You need to quit smoking, it´s unhealthy even if it appears to have no physical effect on you in this world. Just because it seems safe doesn´t mean you should keep doing it. Your friend came by a day ago and asked to see you. He was dressed horribly and smelled awful so I offered him a shower and meal but he wouldn´t have it. He said he´d come back by today or tomorrow.¨ Kim said walking over to Michael. She sat down next to him on the side of the bed and stroked his hair.

¨He said...you fought with Cane. Is that true?¨ Kim asked softly as if she was going to cry.

¨Look, he attacked first. I only defended myself. I got the pay though.¨ Michael said.

¨I don´t care about the pay! You could have gotten killed! Then what would I have left in this world?¨ Kim asked looking him directly in the eye. A small bit of water was forming in her eyes and a tiny tear fell slowly down to her nose. It slowed down then before it got off the cheek Michael wiped off.

¨We needed the money, and I told you that my job was dangerous, fighting is necessary in my job. I warned you when you said you loved me the first time that I had no regrets and would die at any time without feeling bad about it.¨

Kim closed her eyes and sighed ¨I know I know...I just wish you wouldn´t be so reckless. Did you at least win?¨

¨What?¨ Michael asked surprised.

¨Did you kick his butt or not?¨ Kim asked forcing a smile.

¨Of course I won, for I all know he´s still unconscious on that basement floor.¨ Michael said frowning.

¨Yeah yeah, lets just eat. I made some potato soup for lunch. I figured the smell would wake you up since you love soup.¨ Kim said walking back into the kitchen. Michael looked outside and watched the rain for a second before he heard a knock at the door. He got dressed putting on a plain white t-shirt and torn jeans. He groaned as he popped some joins walking to the door. His hand went to undo the 5 locks he had installed on the door. Michael was a very paranoid and cautious person.

He opened the door to see a cleaned up version of Rez panting and holding a piece of paper. ¨May I come in?¨ he inquired.

¨Sure thing Zem. We´re just about to eat join us for some dinner.¨ Kim said coming up behind Michael. The three walked into the kitchen and sat down at the small card table that Michael had. Kim brought over two bowls of Potato soup and smiled as she put them down.

¨Thank you my dear. It smells very good.¨ Zem said. Michael rolled his eyes the manners of Zem always bugged him.

¨You were panting when I answered the door. What brings you hear in such a hurry?¨ Michael asked dipping his spoon into his soup. He reached over to get a cracker from the plate of crackers Kim had just set down.

¨There is some bad news...very bad. For twelve years we´ve all been here with no rule. Now there is a nut job who is claiming he has been back to earth. He has produced a case of handguns as proof.¨

Michael coughed on his soup as he gasped for air he took a drink of water from his glass.

¨Guns?! Where on earth did he get...¨ Michael shut up since he didn´t intend that pun at all.

Kim laughed as she pulled up a chair and heard the pun. She helped herself to some crackers and crumpled them up over her soup.

¨So, there is a nut job that now has possession of guns. How many?¨ Michael asked dryly.

¨Word has it the case contained 50 hand guns.¨ Zem said depressingly.

¨My God...¨ Kim said dropping her spoon. ¨The only reason people aren´t dieing in mass quantity here is because there are no guns. If this these guns get out-¨ she was cut off by Zer. ¨Forgive me for cutting you off, but he already has followers. You see he is promising rescue and he´s putting together a government. He already has armed fifty of ´his´ own men with the guns. He drew a huge crowd of at least 500 with his speech yesterday. A government with 500 followers in this world is dangerous.¨ Zem said finishing his soup.

Michael got up and walked over to the stove and poured himself another bowl of soup. ¨That´s not the worst part Michael...the man promises law and order to be maintained in this world. He promised that as long as we are here he´d terminate anyone that posed a threat to peace in society a.k.a. himself.¨ Zem said lowering his head and looking away. Michael was tired of hearing this garbage.

¨The man is just looking to become dictator of this world Michael. Listen to me, he is a dictator! We have to take him out now before he spreads beyone our capabilities. I am leaving to attack his headquarters tonight at 10 P.M. It´s up to you if you want to join me, but I don´t think I´ll make it far alone...I am sorry to ask this of you...but if he got control of this place...he´d put prices on everything, he´d rule with fear... and he´d stop Rez´s drug trade.¨ Zem said.

Kim sighed and looked at Michael ¨Listen, I don´t know what you´re thinking, I never know what you´re thinking...I don´t like it when you throw yourself in harms way...but this is something that might need to be done...¨ Kim said. Zem got up and scooted his chair back as it scraped against the floor. His shoes clicked as he walked across the floor to the sink to put his bowl in.

¨Thanks for the soup Kim...and sorry to repay you with bad news and asking Michael to leave.¨

¨It´s ok, I´m used to it by now. Michael is an adult that can make his own decisions obviously.¨ Kim said ¨Come back soon ok? You´re always welcome here.¨ Kim said smiling as Zem turned to go.

¨Oh yeah I almost forgot, these are from Rez.¨ Zem said turning around and tossing a small box of cigarettes at Michael. Zem then opened the door and left as the door clicked shut. Kim looked at Michael as he finished his soup, ¨If you go tonight promise me something?¨ she asked.

¨What?¨

¨Promise me that you won´t kill unless you have to?¨

Michael sighed looking at Kim ¨You know that is going to be next to impossible. They have guns Kim. They will be skilled with them and there is no telling how much ammo they have. Death is just a part of this world as much as it was back on earth.¨ Michael said putting on his coat.

Michael put his bowl in the sink and kissed Kim as he put on his hat. ¨I´m going to see Clark. He´ll know what to do about this. Who knows? Maybe he´ll even join Rez/Zem tonight anyway?¨ Michael said dryly as he closed the door.

¨Good luck...¨ Kim said walking over to start doing the dishes. Michael´s shoes made a rubbing sound on the thin carpet that was in his hallway. He opened the door to the stairs and started the descent down to the street level when it hit him that there might be a war brewing.

Michael arrived at the rotating doors of the building when he found himself sighing. _I am not a champion of justice...hell I don´t even care what happens to this world. I know this is Hell but...I don´t want some dictator ruling over my life. Even still this is complete and total lunacy these men will have guns. I don´t even know if I will be fast enough. I know Rez relies much on his own strength to overthrow his opponent and then cripple them; however I don´t know if that will work in this situation. We´ll need a strategy...and that is Clark´s area. _Michael thought to himself. The rain that fell above and around Michael seemed to lower his hopes that the decision he was leaning towards was the right one; however, at this time Michael simply wanted to protect Kim. This government was a bad idea, there was doubt in Michael´s mind, but could he stop it? This question lingered over Michael like a grim reaper hanging on his shoulders.

Michael finally made it to the area in which Clark lived. ¨This area grows more welcome every time I come.¨ Michael muttered reading a sign on the door ¨KEEP OUT TRESPASSERS WILL BE SHOT, SURVIVORS SHOT AGAIN UNTIL THEY ARE NO LONGER SURVIVORS¨ The area in which Clark made his residence was covered in barbed wire. Clark lived underground, in a subway system. His home was an abandoned subway that no one had found yet. Michael summoned his psycic weapon with which he slashed the barbed wire and he walked through. He found a fresh coil of barbed wire on the other side which he reattached to where he had cut through. Michael proceeded down the steps, each step making an echo off the staircase down into the subway level.

At once a set of spikes flew out of the ceiling down at Michael. He swore cursing his own stupidity for forgetting about Clark´s security system he had rigged up. ¨I see Clark is showing off his ability to delay his altering until later times. I hate how that old fossil does that!¨ Michael yelled cutting the spikes with his lance. Another wire went off as Michael did a back flip to avoid the bag of tools that zipped open and came clattering down. The next scene was one of pure acrobatic brilliance as Michael leapt up and extended his hands and legs full length to hang sideways to avoid two blades that came out of the wall and sliced horizontally across into the other wall. Waving his arm across while still holding with the other Michael made a tube that led under the other stairs and let out on the floor like a slide in a McDonald´s play place. He climbed up with this arms until his feet gave away and he slid down through the tube and slid out onto the subway level. He brushed himself off as he got up.

A staff extended to Michael´s face as he raised up his arms. ¨It´s me Michael! Relax you old geezer put that thing away!¨ Michael yelled frantically remembering Clark´s psychic weapon appeared to be an old walking stick at first and then it proved you wrong by revealing it had the ability to summon and control flames. ¨Lower your arms! I didn´t know it was you.¨ Clark said revealing himself into the light. ¨I set off those traps because I didn´t know it was you. Now why did you call me a fossil?¨

¨Because I did know it was you.¨ Michael said groaning as he popped his back in three different areas. Clark walked to his subway cars where he made his home. He went inside and sat in a chair where he produced an old fashioned English style pipe and put some tobacco in it. He struck a match and inhaled puffing out smoke rings.

¨What brings you to my home on a day like this?¨ Clark asked motioning for Michael to sit. Michael did so and pulled out a cigarette. He couldn´t find his lighter so Clark noticing handed him a match. He struck it on the side of the subway car. ¨I came because I need advice. I am kind of lost on this one.¨ Michael confessed. Clark smiled his old smile and chuckled a little. ¨Are you not always lost on an issue when you seek my advice? Do you not think an old man like myself would learn your style of asking for advice?¨ Clark asked chuckling some more.

¨Well, anyway I don't know if you've heard of this new man who claims to have gone back to earth...he´s somehow produced a crate of guns and people are going nuts over it. I--¨ he was cut off by Clark interjecting. ¨Yes I have heard of this man, Michael we can't let those guns get out. I know no order can exist here in Hell as he is promising, we are not cops or fighters for justice...but we cannot let guns flow freely to the crowd. A user could simply have made those guns. As I said earlier we are not fighters of justice, but we have to stop him. If you came to me asking if we need to stop him by force then my answer is this: I am going, we will be lacking in force tonight without you...in fact we will most likely die without your aid. I will not force you to come; however, must deeply weigh your options. Rez and I are meeting at the old city library at 10:00 tonight.¨ Clark said.

¨I don´t care about this world, or my fate however it may be intertwined with this world. I simply want Kim to be happy.¨

¨Now now Michael you know she will be happy as long as you are with her. She´s been that way since you saved her. She loves you deeply and will be happy if you are happy.¨ Clark said putting some more tobacco in his pipe. Michael sighed knowing it was inevitable either way he was joining this fight now. ¨Thanks for the talk.¨ Michael said getting up to leave.

¨Anytime, what more does an old man get pleasure from?¨

¨Those porno mags stashed over there in the classical book collection you have going? ¨

¨GET OUT!¨ Clark said stamping his cane and making an opening in the ceiling. He projected the cement under Michael up back onto the street level.

"Grouch…" Michael muttered as the rain hit him and he felt the wetness rise up in him again.

"I guess I have no choice, if I want to protect Kim I've got to make the first move with Rez and Clark and destroy the gun shipment. I just don't understand, I doubt he made it back to earth…I never tried but…"

A new idea had popped into Michael's head and it hit him like a sack of bricks. He ran over to a building where some metal pipes were sticking out of the wall. He focused heard and opened his hand then slowly closed it into a fist. Grunting and forming the mental image he wanted in his mind. He groaned as sweat appeared down his cheeks, it was exhausting but worth it as he made his discovery. "So it is possible…" Michael uttered in disbelief picking up a 9mm pistol. He made sure it was loaded and pulled the trigger. Michael had expected to hear a bang and a bullet to whiz up in the sky…instead he got a little CLICK.

"What did I do wrong? My mind is sharp enough to make this and I crafted it perfectly. The only thing missing is, THAT'S IT! GUNPOWDER!" Michael shouted aloud. The amazement was showing on his face as he realized it was impossible. Even an 'user' could not make a gun.

_Rule number two of altering states you cannot alter organic material and rule three is you cannot craft raw material. So that is what a 'user' is missing when he goes to make a gun in this world. He is missing gunpowder and cannot complete the process of making a gun. _Michael thought to himself on the way back to his apartment.

One last thought appeared before Michael _Wait…what uses gunpowder?_ Michael stopped walking and soon only the sound of falling rain was heard as Michael's shoes stopped moving. He didn't care he was getting soaked this new revelation had just shown itself and Michael had to figure the odds.

"Fireworks…" Michael muttered as he realized the grim reality. _They can simply extract the gunpowder from fireworks, then they have a 'user' who wants money or something make the guns. It takes a detailed mind to make weapons the more complex the weapon, the harder it is to make etc. So they would need someone very skilled to mass produce guns. At least I know now he is a fake and he didn't go back to earth…_ Michael thought.

As the rain hit Michael each drop just seemed to chip away a little more at his soul, each drop had its own blade with which it cut off a little sliver of Michael's soul. If it weren't for Kim, Michael might have tried to take his life by now. He was tired of this world, with or without his altering abilities this world sucked. It was devoid of human life it seemed, and even the physical bodies that were here didn't seem all that human. Kim was the only thing holding him together. Each ripple that Michael's shoe caused as it hit a new puddle echoed outward. It was almost symbolic of Michael's soul crying out with each new rain drop that hit.

Back at the apartment Kim was cleaning. She had out an old fashioned feather duster that she had found at one of the stores she recently visited.

_It's like mother's was back at home. Mother I hope you aren't to unhappy without me. I don't know if you can hear me, heaven may be even farther from here than it is on earth…just know that I am happy. I am living with a man that I love deeply, he won't admit it directly, but I know he loves me. I never know how long it will be until I see you in heaven, but I hope that you two can meet. _Kim prayed silently. She smiled and thought of the time Michael asked her about herself. It was about a week after he had rescued her and he had just started getting used to her. He was so uptight before she came along it seemed.

Kim started to think about the first time she went in to cover him with a blanket…she shuddered at what she saw and at the same time had so much pity and compassion upon Michael. He had just come home from a fight of some sort, she didn't understand why fought so much, but whatever he had done it bloodied him up. When she asked him about it the first time he replied "Nothing you need to concern yourself with" in a gruff voice. He limped in and tracked blood across the floor. He went into his smoking room but didn't close the door. He groaned and at one point screeched in pain as he sat in his chair. He lit up a cigarette muttering about pain as he inhaled and exhaled for a few minutes. Then he put the cigarette out in the ash tray on the windowsill.

She vividly remembered the scene that followed, and she had remembered it simply because it had made her feel so many emotions at once. This was something she thought impossible when she arrived in the city of rain. Michael leaned back and licked up the kick stool. As he propped his feet out he grunted and she heard a loud POP. Obviously this fight had forced a terrible toll upon his body.

"Do you want me to call a doctor?"

"….no…leave me be" came a grumbled response.

She waited for what seemed an eternity standing there with a broom in her hand. After five straight minutes of waiting Kim walked slowly into the smoking room ignoring Michael's orders. She had a blanket and wanted simply to at least prevent him from catching cold. As she walked around front quietly she leaned over to put the blanket down on Michael. Before the blanket had even made contact with his torn body his eyes shot open. She didn't count but many red lines were exposed as his eyes were wide open. He shot his left arm forward grabbing her right arm and he wrapped his legs around hers. He raised his right arm in the air and shouted "YOU WILL BURN WITH SATAN'S ANGELS FOR COMING AFTER ME!" Michael shouted in a loud voice summoning his lance. He slammed her to the floor and was upon her all within the reaction time of a ½ a second. She had no sooner blinked when his lance was coming down point first at her head. She shook with fear looking into his eyes. It was as if the very flames of Hell were exposed within them, yet at the same time she saw a soul crying out. It was crying out for love, and an escape to someplace safe…

She stopped screaming and merely lay still, she was perfectly ready to give her life to ease him right then. Tears flowed from her eyes as she smiled gently. Michael snapped out of his murderous rampage long enough to realize she wasn't fighting back…in fact she was letting him kill her without any resistance. He adjusted his right arm at the last second and slammed his lance four inches down into the floor. He let it go and it disappeared with a quick POOF and little puff of smoke.

Supported merely by his right hand on the ground and his two knees he lessened his grip with his left hand on Kim's arms.

"You were going to let me kill you, you didn't even put up any resistance. Why were you ok with that?"

"I caught a glimpse of your heart through your eyes…it just wants love and shelter…that's all you want…I was completely ok with dieing to show you that. You think that this world is devoid of the slightest humanity…if you will permit me to live I will show you otherwise." Kim said.

"Why? What is the point of what you are trying to do?!" Michael said slamming his right fist into the floor. Kim didn't flinch but merely lay there and raised her left arm and stroked Michael's cheek gently.

"Elementary my dear Watson, elementary." She said in a deep British accent laughing as she quoted Sherlock Holmes.

Michael's expression was blank as he didn't know to react to what she had just said.

"I am in love, and if you'll trust me I'll show you." She said laughing and smiling.

"Is that all you want? Trust?"

"Well, it'll be a start." She said winking and giggling some more. At once Michael's arm gave away and collapsed gently on her falling asleep.

"I'll take that as a 'I trust you' then" she said smiling. She reached over and pulled the blanket over them both as she too fell asleep….

Back in reality, Kim was dusting the smoking room. Hard as she tried she couldn't find any kind of cleaning chemicals like she was used to on earth…Febreeze, Windex, etc. It didn't matter. She had stuff for laundry but nothing for floors or windows or anything else. She had to do things the old fashioned way, she did them with a bucket of warm soap water and a sponge. She was glad she came upon this old fashioned feather duster though. She opened the window to the smoking room to air it out.

"He smokes like a freight train so no wonder it smells so bad in here." Kim said pinching her nose.

The door opened and Michael strode in. Considering that she had just cleaned he hung his wet coat and hat on the rack next to the door. He then popped off his shoes and set them on the rug next to the door. She excitedly ran to the door and threw her arms around him shouting "Welcome home!"

He simply stood there and finally asked, "Ummm I was only gone for two or three hours right?" She drew back and said "Mmmhmm, but I made some dinner and it's a new recipe I couldn't wait to have you try it." She said smiling. Michael coughed and said "I'll have some dinner after a smoke."

"Oh no you don't!" she said snatching the pack of cigarettes from his hand.

"Smoking ruins your appetite and though I can't make you stop completely I won't have you miss a balanced meal. You can consider one for dessert after you eat."

"Oh yeah? I don't think so." He said snapping his fingers. She had a ribbon holding her hair back. It extended forward wrapping around the box and tossing the box of cigarettes to Michael. He caught them with a nod of his head. Something was wrong. "Why aren't you trying to get them back?"

"I already have them." She replied walking over to the drawer. Michael examined the box and found the bottom open. She had taken all of them out!

"Sneaky lady ain't ya…" he muttered going to wash up for a plate of 'new recipe'

"Kim, I've got to go tonight. I've figured out that this guy, whoever he is, is fake, a talented user can make a gun. It's possible, so he's got a user or two working for his little shenanigan."

"So it is possible…Clark is going tonight?"

"Yes, he and Rez will be attacking. They will need my help. If there are fifty guys armed with guns AND users there it will be too tough without me. All of us are very experienced users. Maybe some of the best in this world, but against guns and masses skill means nothing. Just realize tonight will be bloody and I may not come back…" Michael said. She brought him over a plate with a new kind of chicken and potatoes smothered in some kind of new sauce.

"I hear the cooking in the afterlife sucks. Trust me, if you fall in battle my cooking alone will be enough to raise you from the dead." She said putting her hands on her hips. Michael scoffed and said "We'll see, your cooking is good but-" he paused to take a bite of chicken dipped in the potatoes. He chewed as a spicy flavor hit his tongue followed by the tanginess of the sauce. His eyes opened wider in satisfaction. "Ok, your cooking will bring me back to life." Michael said agreeing. He then stood up and walked over to Kim and grabbed her arms. "Wha?" she said blushing.

"Thanks, without you I feel like a rose without pedals. My roots can absorb the water of this world and sustain me…but without pedals to absorb sunlight and make food…I can't call that living. So thank you." He said drawing her in for a hug.

"I love you too…" she said smirking.

"I guess you dropped the love cannot exist in this world crap, I'm glad it was getting old." She said chuckling to herself.


	3. Chapter 3: Ten O'clock

Chapter Three: Ten O´Clock

At the library the shadows crawled over the ground prowling as if looking for some poor soul to devour. Rez was there, his clothes torn and he was soaked and covered in dirt again. He was behind one of the pillars of the library.

¨So the library is designed like every other building in Washington D.C...Everything is Greek, oh well I didn´t expect anything from this world anyway.¨ Rez whispered sighing. As he waited for anyone else who would show up for this little excursion he remained hidden in shadows. The shadows had already devoured his soul he had decided. Rez was aggravated as he looked at his filthy pocket watch and noticed it read 9:58. ¨Where are they? I know our watches aren't synchronized but good grief, we have to head over there, the guards change shifts in fifteen minutes and we have to cover two miles!¨ Rez hissed. A faint glow appeared and Rez recognized the signal. ¨Clark is here.¨ he muttered holding up his lit lighter showing ´coast clear´.

¨If we met and did this sort of thing back on earth people would suspect trouble.¨ Clark said chuckling.

¨Should we wait for Michael?¨

¨Do we have time?¨

¨No.¨

¨Then no¨

A glow of a cigarette glowed about thirty feet away. Clark caught this and said ¨Never mind, Michael decided to show up after all.¨ As Michael walked up Rez checked his watch and read 10:00 ¨Geez better late than never.¨

¨You said 10:00 I didn't want to disappoint you. Now shut up and lets move. Where is the building?"

¨We have to move now! The guards change shifts in 15 minutes and we have two miles to cover.¨ Rez said impatiently taking off running. Michael and Clark followed close behind. Michael put out his cigarette as it might give them away. There were some street lights scattered throughout the city but other than that you relied upon the rain´s glow for light. At night the glow wasn´t very bright.

Clark was wearing a long black robe over...well he had it buttoned up it didn´t matter, you couldn´t see what was underneath. Michael had on his usual attire only the torn coat was buttoned up. (Kim often joked about how she was surprised the buttons were still on.) Rez himself was just wearing a black tank top and some very torn black pants, his long matty hair hung down over his face, Michael often wondered how he could stand to have that wet curly hair in his eyes. The three splashed through puddles as they ran. After 10 minutes they had made it to the building.

Rez held up his fist and the three stopped and dove down to the street to watch for snipers. It was possible that they had made more guns since the speech the other day. They roughly assumed 75 armed men at the most but users could be anywhere.

¨By the way Michael did you kill Cane when you last fought him?¨ Clark asked. Rez sighed and whispered ¨He´s worried that if you didn´t these people might have hired him, as he is a body-guard for hire. I told him not to worry, I mean you had to finish him off this time.¨ Michael coughed and looked away. Rez´s eyes became narrow slits to show aggravation as he said ¨You didn´t kill him...you´re too soft. Kim is wearing off on you.¨ Michael snapped his fingers and hand formed out of the cement and slammed Rez´s head into the ground.

¨Ok...I had that coming.¨ he said getting up and running for the wall of a nearby alley. This was just another skyscraper like any other building in this city.

Looking around Clark crawled army style for the sewer. He would alter the floor and get into the basement or first floor of the building. Rez, being sure to stay in the shadows, slithered along the alley next to the building they were infiltrating. He was going to alter the wall and make it rotate like a hidden bookshelf in some old mystery movie. Michael himself hated his job. He slid a backpack containing a make shift parachute. He wasn´t taking any chances. Michael saw two armed guards by the large doors and then he crawled to the other side of the street and then came up on the other alley side of the building. He looked up and saw 22 pure stories of torture. He put his hands flat against the wall and altered it to make stairs in the side. The stairs led up to the roof where he would find some kind of air vent or something and crawl in. He put his foot on the first ´stair´ and it nearly slipped off. Each ´stair´ was merely a block of cement about two feet wide and one foot long.

As Rez put his hands to the wall he altered it and rotated into the building not knowing what was on the other side. He came through into a bathroom.

¨What luck.¨ he said breathing a sigh of relief. A man was in one of the stalls and said ¨Jim? That you? What´s lucky?¨ Rez realized that if some response didn´t come the man would become suspicious and raise alarm. Rez made a wheezy voice and said ¨Yeah...I think I´m gonna throw up...too much to drink¨

¨I thought you could smoke and drink as much as you wanted in this world without any consequences besides getting drunk?¨ the man said suspicious of something. ¨Besides there´s no drinking-¨ the man´s throat was slit but a small rapidly spinning disk. ¨Great...now I´ve probably got about five minutes before someone gets suspicious and comes looking for him...¨ Rez said as his psychic weapon disappeared. _My disks are very useful for quick kills. My weapon is a bunch of small disks I can change the size of and control their movement at my will. I can make them as big as a CD or as small as a half dollar._ Rez thought.

He took the guard´s clothes and put them on. Not being well fed Rez was skin and bones so he could fit in tight clothes. This man was pretty skinny so Rez didn´t have trouble putting the clothes on. He had altered the wall to create a coffin in which he put the dead body. He then altered it back to normal. No one would find the corpse. Rez walked down the hall in his new uniform. The new government uniforms consisted of a gray coat, hat, and pants. The shoes were simple hiking boots. _I guess that´s the best they could do in this world for uniforms._ Rez thought looking for some stairs. He was in luck as a sign read 'to second level'.

_I hope that I don't have to go to different stairs to get to the top floor. Maybe I'll get lucky and they'll all be connected. _Rez thought. Continuing on to the second floor Rez thought of something. _Surely they'll wonder where the other man went. I have no way to contact the others…if the alarm goes off we have no way of finding each other and we'll need each other to fight…I sure hope they set off some kind of alarm. _Rez thought to himself.

Outside the building Michael was getting nervous. He was fifteen stories up and these stairs were slick. Michael couldn't alter the air so if he fell he was flat screwed…"In fact I'll just be flat." Michael said as he continued to walk up the stairs. The rain made each cement step more torturous than the last, and Michael's leg muscles were wearing down for he had to keep his legs tensed and make sure to step lightly or he could slip and fall.

On the sixteenth story Michael swore. He couldn't make any more stairs. "Someone must be leaning against the wall! Awww dang…I can't go any further! Stupid rule of altering says if organic matter is in contact with the matter you want altered it can't be done!" Michael yelled angrily.

_What now? I was supposed to get to the roof and move down from there. We supposed the weapons would be kept on a top floor or basement. Just in case Rez would cover every floor in between. _Michael thought about his options and he realized he was shivering. He lit up a cigarette and said "This is nuts…I'm trapped sixteen stories in the air on slick stairs…and I'm smoking. Whatever works I guess…besides nicotine helps me think." Michael said inhaling deeply as if he could enjoy it more that way.

"I could either…wait for the man to stop leaning…or go into the building right here. Neither option works as I could wait ages and at some point my stamina is going to weaken and fail. If I go in now…there is chance someone could be right there and would sound alarm. Therefore I must continue upward and infiltrate from the roof as planned. I'll have to summon my weapon to continue upward."

Michael had named his weapon as it had saved his skin on countless occasions. Tonight would be no different. He quickly formulated a strategy. His lance could extend a maximum of twenty feet, so he would put his feet on the points of the downside of the lance. He would jab the point into the step he was on. Finally he would extend it upward using it as a pogo stick. In theory it would work but to Michael anything in a theory was just that, a theory. Summoning his lance Michael quickly pointed it downward jabbing it into the step and he grunted altering it to make it extend. He flew upward and rain splattered in his face. Michael spit out his cigarette figuring it would go out before it hit the ground.

As his lance stopped rising Michael knew this was it, in the next half second everything he did would determine whether he lived or died! His lance retracted in an instant and he quickly stabbed it into the building with all his might. It went in about a half foot. Michael, using some amazing gymnastics did a flip hanging onto the end and let go. He did a back flip in the air and came down lightly standing on his lance. "Alright…I'm out of ideas now. I'm still 4 stories short of the roof…Wait…the building across the alley! I just have to…YAH!" Michael yelled as his lance extended across and the bottom of the pole hit the other building. Michael altered that building to make stairs now. He slid the lance parallel to his back using the belt of his trench coat.

He walked up and when he was sure he adjacent to the roof of the other building he used the same maneuver then he did a tightrope act walking across and landing on the roof. "I just topped any Russian or Chinese circus act." Michael said sighing and looking for a door.

Clark had not been so lucky in his entrance. He came up into the basement as his calculations were correct. The unlucky part of his calculations were simply that were guards in that basement. Within the basement was a storage closet where the guns were. Clark figured this when the guards started to shoot at him when he rose from the floor. "$#$!" Clark cursed as bullets whizzed past him. He dove for cover behind a pillar used to support the roof of the basement.

As the guards pounded the opposite side of the pillar with gunfire Clark put his strategic mind to work. Clark had no amazing physical features. He was in his fifties after all. He could do toe touches and such but no summersaults or flips or anything complicated. He wasn't overly strong or fast. His greatness lay in his genius. Back on earth he played risk for hours upon hours. He also red much of histories greatest battles everything from bible time fights to modern counterterrorist strategies. His brain absorbed it all, so he was the one to make a plan out of anyone.

He closed his eyes and he imagined he was back in his chair in front of his fireplace thinking. Gunmen were twenty feet behind him firing at the pillar. He couldn't run out or dodge he'd get shot. He was stuck behind this pillar. He needed to get out somehow. If he could face his opponents he was in better shape…he got his idea. Clark laid his hands flat on the pillar for a second then leaning over, he touched the floor and altered it. He pulled up a police riot shield as big as he was and made from bullet proof Plexiglas. Clark walked out slowly as the bullets hit the shield they bounce off the guards realized this. There were five guards total.

_No doubt there are more on the way seeing as gunfire is quite loud. There appears to be only one way in here and that is the stairs to the right of me, so I must…_ Clark thought as he moved towards the wall and touched it making a cement cover move over the stairway entrance. The other five guards didn't appear worried. "Odd…their backup is cut off and I'm holding them off…they must have some ace in the hole. No doubt a user is nearby. Instead of a bullet hitting the shield this time it was an arrow! It flew threw singeing the Plexiglas. Clark had just cocked his head to the left to avoid it. "So there he is…" Clark said.

"Clearly old man, you have gone senile to attack a base by yourself. You probably thought that since you are a user you could take out a couple of guys with guns. I have some bad news. This organization also carries users to stop fools like you. Now surrender, my men still have guns pointed at you and my physic weapon can fire arrows through your shield." A man said.

He had long blue hair down to his shoulders, he wore a red shirt with some medieval style chain mail over it. He had one shoulder pad and a pair of black pants. He held a long bow and there was a…purple arrow waiting to be fired. "How true…sorry to disappoint you but…this senile old man is more than enough to take care of your guns and you. Observe." Clark said. His staff was summoned and tied to a string. Before he left the cover of the pillar he had tied a string to it and tossed it over a beam hanging from the ceiling like a pulley. The others didn't realize it.

"Let's just say that you guys are all burnt out of ideas." Clark said smiling as his staff glowed and then shot down flames engulfing the gunmen and the archer psychic. The men screamed but were reduced to charred black bodies in seconds. "Burnt flesh smells so disgusting." Clark said walking over and leaning down to pick up his staff. To his luck he tripped and hit the ground, as he did a purple arrow flew overhead missing him by inches. He got his staff and got up dusting himself off.

"How did you dodge that so easily?"

"Your eyes aren't to good are they old man? Your strategy was nice, they didn't notice you toss your psychic weapon over the beam; however I happened to see it out of the corner of my eye when it glowed. You were too slow."

"I like to think of it as a gentlemen taking his time."

"Yes well, I'm not a steak, and this isn't a game of crochet. I'll just finish you off now!" he said firing two arrows at once. Clark merely adjusted his staff blocking them.

"Your weapon's ability is to produce an unlimited supply of arrows. That is quite a feat, and useful." Clark said. "Very good Sherlock, I guess you win a prize for that. How about a quick death? You don't know its other ability. You having underestimated me will be your demise!" the man yelled. He fired three arrows in three directions almost simultaneously. Clark didn't predict what would happen next. The arrows ricochet off each surface heading towards Clark. "Dang!" was all he could mutter. He slammed his staff to the ground and a dome of fire rose. The arrows disappeared as they hit the flame wall.

"Wha?! You can use your flames defensively as well?!" the archer stammered mystified. Clark was breathing heavily as he said "You better believe it. Now it is my turn to attack. Or rather I already have." Clark said "What do you mean you already have? Are you stupid! Do you have Alzheimer's disease? You haven't done crap yet!" As the archer said this four walls made of glass rose up to the ceiling trapping him in a two feet by two feet cell.

"When did you do that?!"

"I can delay when I my altering skills take effect. I touched the pillar for a second before I made the riot shield."

"But…that would mean you would have to predicted the best spot for one of the guards to dodge and land. Then aim there! That's impossible! No one mind is that sharp! It still doesn't matter! Do you think I can't break out with a quick fire of an arrow…" the archer struggled but could get enough room to fire with his bow, he was too cramped.

"So what?! You're just gonna leave me here to starve or dehydrate?!"

"No that's not cruel enough. I've got something I remember my chemistry teacher showing me." Clark said altering a small hole near the top of the glass wall. He pulled out a bottle and tossed it in. It shatter releasing the substance all over the walls as it dripped down. "That's rubbing alcohol in case you're wondering."

"What are you gonna do next?" the archer said a revealing a little worry in his tone. "It's funny, you know my chemistry teacher did this with an empty jar and I just thought about what would happen if you put a frog at the bottom of the jar." Clark said revealing an evil jagged smile.

"What does that mean?!" the archer screamed with an angrily showing his fear.

Clark raised his staff to the hole in the top and it glowed lighting the alcohol on the sides of the jar. A wall of flames descended down towards the archer. It created a "WHOOOOOOOOOOO" sound and the archer started to sweat and he got down to the bottom as low as he could go. "Please! Have mercy! I'll do anything! Please just stop this!" the man screamed. "Know thy enemy…and if you truly did you'd know…that I show no mercy to my enemy. Now burn you stupid fool." Clark said watching silently as the flame wall finally got the blue hair. The hair caught on fire but the flames kept going down. The man tried and tried and scrambled to get lower and lower but it was concrete floor beneath him.

Clark watched the flame wall descent lower as it was on his forehead now. He screamed bloody murder and clawed the outside glass wall just crying. Then the fire moved down further evaporating his tears. It melted his eyes and scorched his nose and seared his mouth shut. The body finally fell against the glass wall flat and dead as it turned black from burning. "You truly are an idiot. If you had been smarter you'd have realized that you could have altered the concrete below you to create a tunnel to escape. It just shows that fear cripples the minds ability to think…that's why I always keep a clear mind." Clark said turning to the cement wall covering the stairs. It was starting to crack. "Rez…Michael…you'd best get down here soon." Clark muttered.


	4. Chapter 4: Scar from a twisted smile

Chapter Four: The Scar Formed From A Twisted Smile

The beads of sweat on Clark's face grew ever more numerous as he waited. He knew he was trapped he had three options. Since had just killed five guards and a user he knew he'd be killed or a hostage. _Heh most likely the first one._ Clark thought dryly scoffing in his thoughts.

The only thing standing between more soldiers and himself was a mere ½ foot thick cement block the size of the doorway. Surely they could use some explosive or another user could make it disappear. It appeared at the moment they had a battering ram and were simply trying to break through.

_At the rate it's cracking they'll be in the room in less than three minutes. I just fought so I'm tired and well spent in stamina. I won't be able to alter more than two more things at the maximum. Rez is somewhere in the building and could either be using this distraction to his advantage or rushing down here. If he's smart he'll go on ahead and use this to his advantage. _Clark thought to himself. "Of course the guns are down here…" Clark whispered to himself. _Michael may not even be in the building yet…and he definitely won't come to my aide. His job is to locate the man in charge and kill him…_

The cement block cracked further and Clark smiled. Out of the three options, escaping into the sewers, trying to wait for Rez to save him, and going out with a bang, he'd chosen going out with a bang. "In this hellish utopia that will be created, my name will go down in the history books as the senile old man who breathed fire to the end." Clark said smiling.

The cement block collapsed to the floor with a crumbling CCCSSSSTTTDDDDD and ten soldiers ran in with guns drawn. They were led by a man who looked familiar. He stood at six foot six inches, and wore distinguishable clothes. His clothes were that of some kind of supreme dictator. He wore a black cloak with a white fuzzy collar over a blood red full length robe. He had long wavy black hair pulled back into a shoulder length pony tail. He crossed his arms and spoke "So…you thought to crumble my regime with just yourself? Quite foolish…that is unless you have friends, in which case you are still a fool for attempting such a foolish thing. So, are you alone or with friends?"

Clark considered his next words and acting carefully. Clark sneered and put on the face of an arrogant punk. "I'm but one man who aims for your death…Victor Marble!" Clark yelled spitting at him. A gun fired and clipped Clark's shoulder. He fell to his knees. "Been a while since I've been shot." He said applying pressure to the wound.

"Spit again and I'll cut off your tongue you stupid user. So your just an idiot who used his powers for one last shot at my downfall. I am Supreme Potente of this city. You will not even look in my direction without my say so!" he yelled. Clark was about ready to die, he shakily climbed to his feet and another gun fired this time clipping his knee.

"Ahhh! God! That hurt!" Clark said falling to his butt. He held his knee close and groaned. He squinted and made a sharp hissing breathing sound.

"You will also kneel in my presence, as you are worthless compared to me." Victor said.

"So you didn't like my little speech did you? That's quite a shame…I do have a place for people like you though. As promised to my public I've got users making a graveyard in the center of the city."

Clark knew he had to buy time before he could charge this guy. He could take them out if he slid his staff underneath him with the string attached. Then he'd summon the remainder of his power to burn this man alive.

"What are your plans? You gonna woo the people and then just take over this world?" Clark sputtered.

"No, I suppose you've figured out the earth thing was a lie. I can't go back just yet. However, we're working around the clock to do so."

"You actually think you can return to earth?! How crazy can you get?"

"Well, my senile old man, you don't know anything about this place do you? In the libraries there are no newspapers, and all the books are empty yes? Well I do know something. I'll even fill you in seeing as your about to die." He said sneering and holding his head high.

_It figures, all the stupid villains in the world…really do have to have some long stupid monologue. _Clark thought to himself.

"Allow me to explain. In the year 1980 a scientist thought up the ultimate weapon. It was a machine to send anyone, anywhere into an instant and permanent coma. The world governments immediately set to work upon a machine to do so.

Naturally a few countries pulled ahead Russia, China, the U.S. and so forth. We're not sure who finished first but they put it on a satellite to launch. It was to be tested upon the head of a terrorist cell on the night of the change to the year 2000. Naturally something went wrong, at 12:00 A.M., January 1st, 2000 the computers malfunctioned causing a pre-emptive strike on 5,000 people across the world.

This was new experimental technology so no one knew what happened to the person in the coma. In our case we came here to this city. We figure our bodies are still laying unconscious on Earth somewhere. The only other things we know are we register pain and death here because if you die here you die in the real world. We are the consciousness of the bodies on Earth, and the body cannot live without the mind. That is why we are able to drink and smoke as much here as we want because it is the mind and not the physical body. It is unexplained how everyone ended up…wherever here is." Victor finished.

_Oh my God…it was a technology malfunction…I have to tell the others! Crap if only I'd have escaped earlier!...My mission remains the same no matter what information I find out though. _Clark thought.

"That's a nice story it truly is…however, Earth or not I cannot allow you to continue. In the words of my blessed grandson. THINK FAST!" Clark yelled sliding his staff right under Victor. Clark screamed "NOW!" as flames shot up and engulfed Victor. His body vanished from sight as the flames hit him. When it cleared Clark felt dizzy using his last bit of stamina. The smoke cleared and laughter filled the room as Victor stood untouched…

"Ha ha ha ha ha…I see. You put your last bit of energy into that one little burst of flame. It's a shame you didn't know that I can't be hurt by such a simple attack. You see I am how do you say…immortal. You can't scratch me, I am God here. There is nothing you can do. Now…die." Victor said motioning forward as the guards cocked their guns and prepared to fire.

"My last words will be…life is life no matter where it is or how it is used…and as such no matter where it is or how it is used all lives must come to an end. Mine is now, but yours will follow." Clark said opening his arms wide as to embrace his death.

What happened next appeared as in slow motion to Victor. He had no sooner shouted "Fire!" when a flash of light caught his eye. He slid to the left just enough to avoid a round piece of metal in the shape of a disk cutting his head off. It cut his neck ever so slightly. The next event to follow was the soldiers are pulling the triggers of their guns and firing 10 scattered bullets all aimed toward Clark in various angles. Every angle covered by every bullet led to one single solitary fate…death.

The bullets were half way to Clark when a pillar fell from the ceiling in front of Clark. The bullets ricocheted from the pillar harmlessly. As they did so a man fell from the floor above. Dust fell around him as he stood up.

"I see you've been busy Clark? Did I interrupt a good death attempt?"

"So much so that I had my last words all picked out and everything. It was going to be a beautiful dramatic death and you spoiled it Rez."

"Well excuuuuse me for saving your old already more than half spent life." Rez said.

"That's him huh?"

"Yep. Be careful, something's not right. Flames did nothing to him and he claims to be immune to simple attacks."

"Don't worry, I got this one. You just lie there, just don't die on me you old man."

"Shut up and do your thing." Clark said as his weapon disappeared with a POOF.

"I should have guessed the old man was lying when he said he was alone. I'll assume you're about to try in futility to kill me. Very well, I shall give you a chance to die in battle." Victor said touching the wall and pulling out a Japanese style blade known as a katana. Rez considered Clark's warning and threw down his psychic weapon making it disappear. He touched the floor and pulled out a scimitar. It was an interesting choice of blade and design. From the hilt the blade rose an inch and a half and then made a large crescent and finally straightened back out to make a flat point on top about two inches long.

_That's an interesting choice of blade to go down with. I wonder what his skills with a blade like that are like. Back on earth he must have studied middle age warfare and battles surrounding the holy land and ancient Europe. We'll see who's blade skills are superior. _Victor thought to himself.

Making the first move, Victor ran forward and leapt up to the ceiling and came down somersaulting and slicing with his blade. Rez leapt back until the blade hit the ground. Then Rez put his foot on the blade and prepared to cut Victor's head off. A quick smirk from Victor made Rez change his mind and leap up into the air and back. Right after he did so, a huge spike rose from the ground where Rez was moments earlier. "Crap." he said running and making an arc around to the left side of Victor. Victor thrust his blade forward towards Rez's stomach. Sweating Rez used the shape of his blade to his advantage. He stabbed it into the ground and used the curve to catch the Katana and force it to the right. Rez threw a punch forward making contact with Victor's face.

Victor took the punch and slid back pulling his Katana with him. "A nice blow and delivery, you pride yourself in fighting dirty, or winning whatever way it takes. Do you not?"

"Victory and life go hand in hand for one such as me. As a wise man once said: All's fair in love and war." Rez said rushing forward and swiping across to the right with his scimitar. Victor ducked and as the blade missed he leapt up into the air coming down over Rez, who leapt backward as the Katana stabbed into the ground. _He still hasn't revealed a psychic weapon of any kind. _Rez thought to himself. "Ready to surrender?"

"Surrender? I'm not even warmed up yet!" Rez yelled running forward at Victor.

Michael had reached the roof and proceeded forward to the door. He opened it and slid inside. The stairs before him smelled of mildew. _There_ _must be a leak from the rain somewhere._ Michael decided as he walked down the steps. A clicking was heard by the guards and they put two and two together that no one would be coming from the roof. The two guards that were on the top floor cocked their guns and ran to handle the intruder. The thought that only someone with special powers would be the only person to make it to the roof didn't occur to them.

Michael tensed up as the sound of guns cocking hit his ears. Ducking down to the floor Michael covered his head as the two guards spun in and fired into the stairwell. They weren't trained well with guns and they completely emptied their clips. Michael counted ten shots and then rolled forward in a ball. He came to their feet and came up fast with two daggers he pulled out. He had stabbed each of the guards in the heart killing them instantly. Michael didn't know that most of the guards were heading towards the basement to watch Victor fight so he checked the rest of the room.

He had altered the two guns into plastic roses. "Heh ironic...there was a band called Guns and Roses back on earth." Michael said dryly. Michael took a look around observing his surroundings more. The top three stories housed a gigantic library! He ran and checked each book hoping for something human...He growled and slammed his fist into the book case. "Nothing! They're all blank! They really didn't make it to earth." he said.

Turning to leave and head downstairs, Michael thought for a second. _If my job is to assassinate Victor then I'll have to actually have to do some heavy duty killing to get to him. He probably has body guards and all. So from this point forward I need to put all my energy into focusing. _

As Michael's hand went to the door knob, it was already turning. A man with a cup of coffee came in.

"Hey guys, were you practicing with your guns again? You know the boss only hands out limited-" he saw the dead bodies and he joined them on the floor. Michael walked out of the room. He could always summon his weapon, but at the moment he had 20 throwing daggers in his coat.

Michael saw a nice sized air vent and he decided to crawl in to avoid any more guards. He latched the cover back on and proceeded to the next part of the ventilation shaft. As he crawled into the shaft a nice breeze hit him, for it was humid outside and he much enjoyed the breeze. Crawling further and further into the shaft Michael realized that there was a part of the shaft coming up that opened up and went into a column going down. The air was coming from there and Michael figured there were giant fan blades spinning in this column. The thought hadn't occurred to him before. _Crap._ Michael thought.

Trying to figure out what to do he turned on the flashlight he had and checked. _The blades spin in unison...so if I land on the center of the first I could simply grab two edges and slide down doing the same with every new fan blade since they are about ten feet apart...Plus I need to save as much stamina as possible. One fight and I'm pretty much spent on energy for altering._ Michael thought.

"Kid's don't try this at home on earth..." Michael muttered dryly as he pulled a rope from his trench coat and tied it to some steel beams at the top of the shaft. He kept the rope rolled up on his arm lowering it only as he needed. He had four more ropes in his coat anyway but he still didn't want to risk tangling his ropes.

It was a tedious process landing on the center of the fan and then immediately leaning forward and catching a space between two individual blades. He was feeling very dizzy spinning. The fan blades were suspended by a single bar going across the shaft on the top side, and there was no bar below so Michael could spin on the fan dangling without trouble. Michael picked his moment and did a somersault forward and coming down between two blades. Catching his bodyweight and holding steady, Michael spun and let go coming down above the next fan blade.

Having a bit of luck for a change the fan blades stopped as the air conditioning deactivated. "Yes dang it! It's about freakin time!" Michael whispered. Not knowing how long until it kicked on again Michael quickly tied a rope to the bar suspending one fan blade and lowered himself slowly down though the blades. "Almost..." Michael muttered sweating from the strain of lowering himself so slowly. _Kim is going to gripe about how coarse my hands are when I get home..._Michael thought sarcastically. Michael's luck ended when on the 15th floor a soldier walked over to the thermostat and lowered it. As the blades started to whirl Michael knew instantly he was screwed.

He felt his rope jiggle and finally the fan spun with enough force to cut it. It snapped quietly but Michael felt that dizziness you feel when you are falling without control. As if in those dreams where you are falling within infinite blackness Michael saw a bit of light coming up at him fast. It was a vent opening! Thrusting his hand for it when it was level Michael's arm popped stopping his body weight dead. He grunted when it popped but he reached his other arm up to grab between the bars.

Michael brought his feet up behind him as he pressed against the opposite side of the vent and proceeded to stretch forward. With a long CRREEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAK the vent busted forward and Michael crawled onto the eleventh floor. He looked at a sign that read "Documentation Room" and an arrow that pointed left. He raced down the hall towards the room. _I can find some plans and destroy them...or find something related...to Earth..._ Michael thought. The possibilities of what lay in that room were endless.

As Michael came to the door he saw two guards...but he was looking around a corner so they couldn't see him yet. Using a dagger to reflect around the corner he was sure he counted just two. Michael spun from the corner so fast the soldiers were dead with blades in their hearts before they could fire a shot.

Not caring if other guards found those bodies Michael twisted the door knob and walked into the room. It was about the size of someone's living room and it contained three file cabinets. One cabinet labeled "Earth" another labeled "The City of Rain" the last labeled "The Water Cycle". Michael thought carefully as he was sure he had limited time. He had to figure out which files to take and which to leave. He was curious on what data they had gathered on the city of rain but he realized that priority outdid curiosity.

Each file cabinet had five drawers. He pulled open the top drawer of the cabinet labeled "The Water Cycle" and saw five folders. He opened the first one and inside was a paper with some statistics on it. It showed a graph...some numbers...what caught Michael's eye was the statistics at the bottom of the people within the City of Rain.

"It counts to 5,000...it stops there. Since the time we've gotten here...the number hasn't decreased or increased! Surely people have died though! This can't be correct!" Michael gasped. He read further: "As of now day 4,360, we have concluded that for every person that dies in this world, a new person is dragged to this world. We are trying to conduct research on how this happens but we are so limited as to what we can do. In this world the only source of power and hope lies with the users ability to alter. We cannot yet figure out how they do so, however we do know one thing. Users should be the Gods of this world because they can do such amazing things. However, they cannot even stop the rain, let alone change living things. Despite these limitations they should be able to be Gods here, yet they aren't. Our boss, Victor Marble is able to defy the laws of altering! The four rules of altering are as follows:

You cannot stop the rain.

Living material cannot be altered.

One can only alter to a certain extent before becoming exhausted.

One cannot produce or destroy the matter only alter it.

Victor has defied two of these laws! He has altered a human being into death. He altered a human's leg into a metal limb once. It was quite a feat and he was nearly exhausted afterward, but he did it. The human however died of medical complications in the end. It seems the human has a massive heart attack from blood clot. Even though it was a success, Victor's mind was not that of a doctor so he didn't think of the consequence of turning a leg into metal. It seems that some way some how he is able to alter without end. He is working on defying the law of producing and destroying material as well. Soon he will defy all the laws and become God himself."

Michael couldn't believe what he was reading. "That's...not possible. He's defying the laws of altering themselves! How?! If he can defy one of the four laws then...That just means we'll have to beef up our attempts to kill him. After all he bleeds right?" Michael thought. Michael grabbed two or three more random files from the cabinet labeled "The Water Cycle" and stuffed them in his trench coat.

At that time Victor wasn't bleeding too much. Victor drove his sword forward thrusting towards a panting Rez. He barely ducked out of the way and rolled in time. _Rez has been fighting for ten minutes straight now. He is panting and his movements and reactions have slowed to just above what an average human can do. He won't last much longer...even more shocking is Victor is merely sweating. Rez has a look of fear in his eyes because he is out of ideas and tricks...but Victor's eyes show no falter, it's as if he is some unlimited robot merely waiting for the next move so he can parry and move in for the kill. _Clark thought. "I've got to come with a plan and fast. I'm powerless and wounded. Rez will last another two minutes before his body gives out on him. He can't alter much more either. I estimate he's got about four to five good transformations left in him." Clark whispered to himself.

_Another shocking thing is if they were losing or scared or worried in any way they could take me hostage...seeing that they've made no move to do so shocks me all the more..._ Clark thought to himself.

"Have you seen the error of your ways yet measly mortal?"

"Heh, I've made plenty of mistakes in my life. One mistake is a double edge sword to the rest of my mistakes though..."

"And what mistake would that be?"

"No regrets!" Rez yelled catching the katana in the curve of his blade and swinging it up and left in a crescent shape. The katana left Victors grasp and stabbed into the wall.

"Now Victor! Surrender before I cut your head off! You know full well you're unarmed and my reflexes are still good enough to kill you before you can alter anything!" Rez yelled.

_He's not even backing up to the wall to show fear or backing down! He's got something up his sleeve somewhere...gotta be on alert. _Rez thought to himself.

In a scene of brilliance Victor defied Rez's plan. Victor had the scimitar's point at his neck so he couldn't move without Rez taking some sort of action. Victor slowly raised his hands open palmed at Rez. "Here is where your logic is defied." Victor said as slowly touched his shirt over his breast plate. As he did so two spring-loaded chains with a sharp point on each end shot out at Rez. "He altered his shirt?!" Rez gasped ducking. One chain point cut his left shoulder open. The other slit his right arm. "#!" Rez said. Victor did several back flips to the wall and he laid flat against it. "Now die." Victor said as a red chain of energy altered the wall into several launching spikes.

With thirty cement spikes flying at him Rez cursed and planted to hands flat to the ground to pull up a medieval shield made of solid steel to shield himself with. Rez was now paralyzed, he could not move without a volley of spikes to kill him. Somehow Victor wasn't letting up! The spikes kept coming and Rez felt them as they hit his shield. After about sixty seconds of spikes clashing with the shield Rez's arm was going numb.

Clark couldn't move for the spikes were just to his right and if he got caught or nipped by one it wouldn't be pretty as he was already wounded. The spikes were coming in an endless volley as Victor shouted out "I can keep this up all night. Or are you already dead from a heart attack behind that shield?! I'll come and find out myself!" Victor shouted launching one last volley of spikes and charged at the shield. Rez lay crouched in a state of half consciousness behind it not really registering what was coming at him. Victor, running right behind his last volley of spikes yelled out "I've got it! I'll change your body and joints into solid steel and we'll try making you the first robot of this world or on Earth!" Victor said laughing and getting closer. Rez had enough and fell unconscious as he did so his shield flew from his hand as the last volley of spikes. It landed with a CLA-CL-CL-CLANK on the floor a dozen feet away.

Victor thrust his right arm forward to catch Rez's head and start altering his body. "Meet your maker!" Victor shouted as he got within five feet of Rez's head. Clark watched as his comrade and friend was about to meet his end and there was nothing he could do. _You don't even get last words...how cruel._ Clark thought. When Victors hand was four feet from Rez's head dust flew from the ceiling and a glowing red light came at a blur. Victors hand made contact with another foreign material a two feet from Rez's head. It was Michael! One guard observed a hole in the roof with a diameter of four feet that seemed to go up several floors. "He's good." the guard muttered looking up in astonishment.

Michael was sweating as his right hand was connected with Victor's. Red sparks flew as Michael squinted his eyes and grunting said "So...Victor...we...meet at...last."

Victor himself was sweating furiously now and he was even grunting. "And...you are?"

"...Michael...I'm come to guide you across the river...styx and into...Hell."

"You have been gathering data this entire time I take it?"

"...Yes."

"..Then...I...assume...you're aware of...my...abilities."

"...Also...correct."

"So...you still...defend...your friend...despite this knowledge?"

"In...a...New York Minute."

"So be it...then die with them!" Victor yelled showing his temper.

Michael's entire right arm started to shake violently and bleed. It sprayed blood and Michael cried out in pain...he didn't back off though. Red sparks flew as two users abilities clashed. The sparks turned black and Victor's groans grew louder as in triumph. Michael's flesh and internal arm started to change to steel! The metal flesh traveled slowly up his arm! Michael was in terrible pain and he screamed shaking his head left and right in a violent motion.

When the metal flesh made it to Michael's shoulder something snapped in Michael. He used his left hand and grabbed the metal flesh or his right arm and yelled "I SAID NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!" A bright red flash stopped the metal flesh at the shoulder joint. Victor cursed and put more energy into continuing the altering process of Michael. "DIDN'T YOU HEAR ME?! NO MEANS NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!" Michael shouted at the top of his lungs blood coughing out from within him.

The red flashes around Michael's shoulder grew and surrounded Michael and Victor. "HHUUUUUUAAAAARRRRRGGGGG!!!!!" Michael yelled as the flashes now pulsed and one finally appeared separating Victor and Michael's hands. It knocked Victor back into the wall enough to crack it. Not only that, Victor was pushed flat against the wall by the force of the energy. Michael instantly collapsed to his knees and he coughed up blood.

_Gotta...get outa here... _ran though Michael's head like a strobe light appearing again and again and again and again. Michael touched the floor with his left hand and a large crack formed and the middle of the basement collapsed taking Rez and Clark with it. The guards immediately ran to Victor who pried himself from the wall. Some pointed their weapons down into the hole and fired. Victor ordered them to stop. "Sir should we go after them?"

"No...they're injured and we won't hear from them for a while. Just get some spare users to repair this place." Victor said walking to the stairs.

"And where are you going sir?"

"To see who is dead and what they stole."

"Don't you need to rest?" the man said before spikes reigned from the ceiling killing him. "I am God remember? I need no rest." Victor said walking up and away as if nothing ever happened...

Three hours later, a manhole by the Michael's apartment slid open. A metal arm and crawled out. The other arm was holding Rez's body. Clark himself had left and headed for the subway limping through the sewers. "I'll be fine." he said. Michael made it all the way up his stairs and to the front door. He opened it and Kim sprang to greet him. She gasped when she saw the bloody mess that was Rez's body slung over Michael's shoulder.

"Rez...Oh my god your arm! What happened?!"

"Just get Rez some bandages and fresh sheets." Michael groaned putting him down gently on the couch. "What about-" "Just get Rez." Michael interupted.

Kim came back with some bandages and medicine. She worked immediately set to work mending Rez. She was a registered nurse after all. Michael went to his smoke room and sat down in his chair groaning. With his metal arm he fished out his cigarettes from his trench coat pocket. He lit one up and inhaled. "So I just fought God..and didn't get away without a scar." Michael muttered holding up his metal arm. It was heavy...but somehow he could move it and his fingers and joints.

Victor must have gotten better...I don't know how I stopped it from spreading either...the thing that worries me most...is that I had to use my left arm to alter the floor to escape..." Michael said closing his eyes...It now appeared that Michael couldn't alter with his right arm anymore...


	5. Chapter 5: An Exploding Battle

Chapter 5: An Exploding Duel

It had been two days since the fight with Victor. Michael's wounds had healed except for this arm predicament. Rez still hadn't regained consciousness either. Michael had no way to talk to Clark and had heard nothing from him. Smoking again, Michael was sitting in his chair thinking and watching the rain.

He was thinking about Victor's fight. As far as he knew Victor had taken down two users without breaking a sweat. "But...how? He defied the laws of altering themselves! I have no hope of killing. I need a trainer to get me better..." Michael said closing his eyes. _It's not like I can just go find a dojo and start training with a sensei. _Michael thought. "Michael? Zem is awake, and wants to talk to you." Kim said softly as she walked in.

"What time is it?"

"It's about a quarter past two. I'll start some lunch."

"Thanks."

Michael got out of his chair and put out his cigarette.

_Kim never would let me smoke outside this room. _Michael thought to himself wondering if it was part of a conspiracy to get him to stop smoking. He wasn't too sure though. Michael shut the door of the room he used to smoke and walked into the hallway. His leg popped slightly as he extended it for the next step.

When Michael got to the living room he found Zem still laying on the couch, but he was sitting up.

"My dearest thanks for dragging my body back and patching it up. I'm guessing Kim actually patched me up though." Zem said smirking.

"Yeah, I just stopped the bleeding and carried you."

"Then for that I thank you. I was watching Rez fight and I noticed many alarming things about Victor...one such thing is he doesn't tire."

"Yes, I found data on him and it listed the four laws of altering and he's broken two of them somehow. I don't know if he was some kind of ability we lack...we may just be out of luck." Michael said getting quiet.

"Why don't we just storm him three at once? Outnumbered surely he'll surrender or die." Zem said.

"No offense, but it's obvious you're not Clark. He'd know that numbers help in most cases with the exception of this one. You see, Victor fought Rez without breaking a sweat. So wearing him down is out of the question, he won't wear down. We've got to find a way to stop him before we exhaust ourselves."

"So if numbers don't help us speed is our only advantage?"

"I'm afraid not even that, he matched Rez's reflexes and you're faster than me and Clark."

A knock at the door was heard and Kim answer it. "Oh! Are you ok?!" was heard.

"I'll manage thanks." came Clark's voice as he entered the room. He had a makeshift cast on his leg.

"Still don't trust doctors huh?"

"Not a bit." came Clark's stubborn reply.

"Well I'm not a doctor, I'm a nurse so sit down over in that chair and prop your leg up."

"I really don't th-"

"NOW!

"Yes Ma'am." Clark grumbled.

"One of her pet peeves is a patient who isn't treated that she can care for." Michael said dryly.

Kim came back and began to wrap Clark's leg.

"It's not broken or-" Clark was again cut off.

"Yes, however it clipped your bone slightly. You can still walk on it, but unless I...wrap it...and put some good pressure on it...ugh, it'll cause more pain later. It could also heal wrong causing arthritis." Kim said working fast.

"She a nurse or doctor?" Zem asked astonished.

"Nurse...so she says." Michael whispered.

_I wonder what his secret is..._ Michael thought to himself.

"Either way I need to get stronger. Furthermore, I need to figure out how- or what I did to slow down Victor's metal alter of my body. I stopped him somehow...and he is trying to figure out what I did too." Michael whispered to himself.

"Michael we've got a problem here, in a utopia everyone gets along or what happens?"

"It doesn't work..."

"Well more simple than that people that don't get along with the idea 'disappear." Clark said.

"Victor is sending his men into section A of the city. If you divide the city into four parts, A is naturally first. His men go into buildings, markets, restaurants, and get information on people. Then he orders them to keep their ID card made for them by a user that travels with each squad."

Michael didn't like the sound of that. Hypothetically he lived in quadrant B.

"How much time until they arrive here?"

"They spend four days per quadrant I've heard."

"So two days passed...then they get here."

"Worse, he's up to 100 men with guns. Also, they'll eventually force everyone without an ID card to get one or die. Last, this is the most disturbing...if the person is a user they capture and take them to a secret location. They have a user who's weapon can detect other user's." Clark finished.

Michael's expression went to that of frustration. _This isn't good. At this stage we'll die if caught. _Michael thought to himself.

"My God...so...we have to run or move?"

"And, if they have enough users, they can create an assembly line." Zem finished the thought.

Kim had been silent up until this point but her girl leading instincts were kicking in. "Clark, your subway is in quadrant D correct?"

"Yes...but I like my priva-" he was cut off by Kim continuing. "Then we'll all transfer to there to come up with a strategy. We'll start moving within an hour or two." Kim said as Clark slunk lower in his chair with a scowl.

Thinking of his options on Michael wondered what his next course of action would be. _Clark said his fire didn't hurt him...so only physical actually attacks that make contact can hurt him. _Michael thought to himself. A folder slid through the mail slot in his door. "A case? At a time like this?" Kim said puzzled walking over to pick it up.

Michael's eyes went back and forth as he read the piece of paper in the folder. "It's not a case...but a request to find a missing person. A user that has been taken captive by Victor's squad. "Scrap that case immediately!" Kim said.

"Shush! Do you hear that?" Clark asked. They all paused and the very air in the room seemed to pulse as the sound of boots coming up the stairs and searching every room. Kim started to scream but Michael quickly rushed forward and slid his hand over her mouth. Clark ran to the door and silently opened it and looked down. "They're on the tenth floor and coming up still." he mouthed.

"Do we fight?"

"No! They are in squads there is only one ten man squad in this building but there are at least five more squads alone in this quadrant. If one goes down the others come running!" Michael said. Clark ran back in and closed the door silently.

Michael thought about this. Clark would need the most help since he couldn't run. Zem quickly closed his eyes and then the familiar brown eyes of Rez appeared. "I'm able bodied since I can run and jump."

"Your stamina hasn't returned yet."

"Well you're down to one arm."

"What are you two arguing about?!" Kim yelled. At this a man broke down the door and yelled "Hands up!" Michael slammed his fist into the wall and a row of wooden spikes shot up from the floor right in front of the man. They were so close one caught and stabbed through his arm. The other caught his nose and stabbed upward with such force it ripped out part of his right nostril.

With blood spraying Michael leapt into action hearing the guard's screams. The other nine came rushing up the stairs towards Michael. One opened fire and a bullet whizzed past Michael's face and hit the door frame causing dust to fall in front of Michael. "Well Rez it looks like you don't have a choice. You're closest to the hidden door." Michael said summoning his psychic weapon. "If anything happens to Kim I'll come after you and kill you both." Michael said as he rushed out into the hallway without looking back.

"Michael!" she yelled as Rez picked her up and carried/dragged her to the secret door in the ceiling. He pulled the cord and a staircase leading to the roof. They ran to their invention. A three seated plane/gliding device. It was large enough for three people and had one propeller that ran like a bicycle in the manner that if you pedaled the propeller spun. It was a hard contraption to make even for three users.

"We can't fly this thing with Michael still in there!" Kim said struggling to be let go. "Sorry babe." Rez said as he chopped her in the back of the neck causing her to fall over limp. Clark looked at him and said "It makes me wonder what other sleezy things you know..."

"Let's just say we don't have time to discuss life on the streets." Rez said as they climbed inside the machine.

"How will Michael know where to meet us?"

"You just told him at my subway home." Clark said as he climbed in grunting.

After loading Kim into the plane Rez started to wheel it towards the end of the roof. He slid once or twice in the rain but was moving it none the less.

All at once the door to the roof collapsed and three soldiers ran out and saw the craft. "Stop! In the name of Victor!" they shouted.

"Well, there's something I never wanted to here." Rez said.

"He's already taking over...are we to late?" Clark whispered to himself.

"Clark!, We're sitting ducks here! If we alter the plane it will crash down and we'll fall to our deaths!"

"Then hurry up and take off!"

The guards raised their weapons and took aim preparing to fire at the craft. At once a bright orange tipped beam stabbed through a guard's stomach. With blood dripping the guard collapsed and against the wall and scrapped downward smearing blood along the wall.

"Even if he made it he still can't come with us..." Rez said pushing the craft right up to the edge of the roof then altering the rail, and border of the roof to make it flat so the wheels could get on it.

Michael retracted his lance and dover forward into a summersault. He slapped his left hand on the rooftop raising a wall two feet high to block the bullets shot at him from the remaining two guards. When the guards had to reload Michael leapt on his wall and up into the air about eight feet.

He threw his lance forward letting go as it pierced one guard in the chest killing him instantly and he came down with a powerful kick to the chest on the remaining gunman. The gunman's body slammed into the stairs and his head banged hard against the rubber covering of the stairs. Michael still had one foot on him pinning him down. He reached over and grabbed his lance and raised it.

"No...please! Anything! I'll give anything just don't kill me!" the man begged starting to cry.

"Answer me one question, and if you answer correctly I'll let you live. Lie to me and I'll behead you. Now...would you spare me if our positions were swapped now?"

"Yes! Of course I'd let you walk right out the building I swear!" the man said tears forming and more sweat falling down his face.

"You're a liar...unfortunately for you, I tell the cold truth like it is."

"Wai-" was all the man had time to say before Michael grabbed the back of his lance with both hands and held it as a straight line horizontally and fell forward with all his might.

When it was over blood had splashed up to Michael's chin and splattered his coat and the man's head no longer attached to his body rolled to the right.

All of a sudden Clark's words popped into Michael's head. "They hunt in groups of 10." Michael had killed three men and surely the others had heard the noise and headed for the roof.

For a moment he looked at the craft before Rez pushed it off and he made eye contact with Clark. "We'll meet again." was understood silently within the unanimous moment of two heads nodding.

Rez gave a final grunt as he pushed the craft and the wheels left the roof. He hopped on board and slid into his seat to start pedaling as Clark did the same. The propeller spun and Clark cranked the controls to the left as the craft tilted that direction. The fell for five seconds then leveled out and took off. Michael smirked knowing he got the hard job once again. The term for this back on earth was "shanked". _Alright I got seven men to kill, one is a user. No sweat right? Of course right. _Michael thought making fun of the matchmake from the classic play _A Fiddler On The Roof. _Two new Gunmen now stood at the bottom of the stairs. Michael looked back and saw them point their guns upward towards him. "Stop right there! Surrender and come down with your hands up!" They shouted in unison as their weapons leveled at Michael's head.

Michael's eyes caught the gleam of light from the guns coming upward. "We won't repeat ourselves! Come down with your hands up now!" one said. Counting his options Michael came down to two. He could act like he was giving up and when he got close enough make a move. _No…the closer I get the better their accuracy is. _His second option didn't seem much better but at least it gave him a shot.

Michael raised his hands in the air and said "Ok I'm coming but I need to put a hand on the wall on the way down. I'm injured and will fall otherwise."

"Whatever just raise your other hand and keep it in plain sight. How old are you anyway?" a guard asked.

Laying his hand on the wall like he said Michael altered down the wall moving it across to make a shield. The guards fired, but it was too late. The wall that moved across now protected Michael.

Stepping backwards Michael closed the door to hallway and turned around. His hair was soaked with blood from the previous soldiers and the rain was making it drip down his face. Michael had just altered four times and he was a little dizzy so he sat down for a seconds to regain his composure. There was a banging sound on the other side of the wall as the soldiers banged and yelled. Michael heard more now.

What happened next Michael didn't predict or react in time too. The wall exploded sending debris and dust Michael's way. He had been five feet away from the wall and door was closed and the door exploded off the hinges with debris behind it.

The debris came at Michael and slammed into him knocking him to the ground. Michael was buried in a pile of collapsed door and wall. As the dust cleared the soldiers plus one new figure stood in the now damaged hallway.

"Where is he?"

"Check the entire roof!"

"No! Stay where you are, if he is a user you know the rules, he's mine." Came a booming voice.

The pile of rubble and debris shifted as Michael rose from it. Dust went everywhere. Michael looked at this new figure dressed differently than the guards. Total there were six guards and this new guy. He wasn't wearing the standard uniform like the others. This guy had spiky red hair and he kept a long thin stick in his mouth sort of like some people would keep a long piece of grass in their mouth.

"You there! I'll give you one chance to come with us or else I am ordered to crush you." The red haired man said with a deep Australian accent. "No thanks, I've got somewhere to be at the moment."

"Not an option…however, that was your one chance. You just blew your hopes sky high." The red haired man said.

"The name of your executioner is Dillon. I'll be killing you today by using my psychic weapon I like to call the boom lens. You have already seen its power on that wall and door, and that was only 30 of its power. So I'll give you one last chance to surrender yourself to the army of Victor."

"I got a better idea, how about I give you the finger." Michael said flipping the man off, "And you back out of the way before I kill you." Michael finished lowering his hand.

"Way wrong answer." Dillon said as a green manacle like lens appeared over his right eye. It was actually half a pair of sunglasses. Michael only had time to gasp as Dillon smirked and the ground around Michael went up in smoke exploding.

"Too bad…I would have enjoyed breaking him into shape."

"Don't count me out just yet." Michael said appearing behind Dillon. "The fun is just beginning."

"A nice dodge, but can you keep it up? What if I get too fast for you?"

"Then I guess I die and fight ends there. You shouldn't get your hopes up though. I fought your Victor and lived to tell the tale."

"Yeah I heard your tale, you ran away like a dog with its tail tucked between its legs. You didn't get away unscathed either did you? That arm is made of solid steel"

"It should have killed me, but something stopped it."

"Victor was kind of puzzled about that, however much damage you did he wants you alive for study." Dillon said.

"Let's resume then."

"If you insist." Dillon said as he automatically started to make the next move exploding four points at once was his choice.

"Multiple targets?!" Michael cried out shocked.

The four dots exploded in slow motion as Michael lay flat on his back and altered himself a small dome in the roof just small enough to shield him. He completely covered himself and made an airtight dome.

"You didn't have time to dodge then did you?! Stupid fool! Now you're an easier target!" Dillon shouted as saliva leaked from his mouth. A huge explosion blew the dome to bits. "Ha! Where is your genius now?!"

Dillon's face turned from arrogance to a frown of wonder and disappointment at the same time when he didn't see a bloody corpse under the dome.

Michael shot out of the roof one foot behind Dillon. He was ten feet in the air and he summoned his lance to his hand. He aimed for Dillon's head. _Now to end this…_ Michael thought to himself about to launch the tip of the lance.

An explosion on the lance shocked Michael and knocked him backwards. The explosion was big enough to hurt Michael as he was blown backward. The shock from the explosion reached his ears as they rang out from the sudden burst of noise. _What...was that?_ Michael groaned in his head.

Looking down Michael saw he was heading for the edge of the roof. His lance had poofed away so he summoned it once more and pointed downward shooting the tip into the roof. It plunged downward and Michael used it to push himself forward like a pogo stick. As it retracted Michael landed.

"Didn't think I could hit a moving target?"

"You caught me by surprise there." Michael said as he noticed the explosion ripped open a gash in his arm. Michael threw the lance to the side as it poofed away again and Michael touched the ground altering and pulling out a short sword. It was two and a half feet long and gleamed of silver. _He can't detonate an explosion close to him or he'd injure himself. Dillon loses in close combat._

Lunging forward Michael dove left to avoid another explosion and then ran forward with blinding speed. He let the rain slide him past Dillon with a swipe across to the left. Dillon leapt backwards, as Michael recovered and came after him in a straight line again. Thinking that he could get him with a thrust Michael thrust using all his strength. The result was his opponent altering the floor to rise up on a column ten feet into the air. Dillon pulled a bow and several arrows out of the column.

"Can you dodge exploding arrows?"

"Let's find out."

Dillon loaded and fired three arrows almost simultaneously in a triangle formation around Michael. _Such accuracy and speed _The arrows exploded around Michael blowing apart his trench coat and ripping open the skin around his ribs. Michael fell over screaming in pain. He shook as the stinging sensation entered his entire body. The cold rain didn't help either.

"Goodnight Michael." Dillon said firing an arrow straight for Michael's head. It bounced off harmlessly revealing Michael shielding himself with his metal arm. "Guess I owe Victor after all." Michael said touching his trench coat and altering it to slide down and tighten around his ribs. The fabric wrapped tight and Michael grunted. "A band aide to cancer." Michael muttered.

Michael got up thinking _My reflexes are slowed and high jumping is getting to be a pain. I've used at least half of my stamina too. _Trying to think of a strategy Michael looked up at Dillon who, he was sure, was aiming another explosion just waiting for Michael to move in futility.

Throwing his short sword at Dillon, Michael rushed to the right. "He'll have to explode that sword to stop it and that gives me my chance to move." was all Michael could say before he was rattled by another explosion sending him sliding along the ground towards the border of the roof.

"Multiple targets remember?"

Groaning Michael replied "Yeah, so I've seen."

"You are fighting pretty hard, but for what reason? You're friends got away right? What do you think you can accomplish?"

"I can keep you from going after them..." Michael said getting to his feet shakily. "I mean enless you're fighting for my weapon that is."

"What?"

"What do you mean what?! Or...have you never killed a user before?"

Michael cocked his head trying to figure out what Dillon was saying. _You're saying I can have your weapon if I win? How?_

"I can't believe you! Yes you idiot, if a user kills another user their opponents weapon is added to their arsenal. That's how Victor intends to escape this world. He's sure there is a weapon powerful enough to wake us up." Dillon explained.

Shaking his head in disbelief Michael tried to make sense of this. He could take another user's weapon by killing them!

"Come to think of it, I like your lance there. I think I'm gonna make it mine!" Dillon said aiming for another explosion. Exhausting him was out of the question...especially with Michael injured. Michael then though of his strategy. _He hasn't once hit me directly...why? He exploded his arrows...my lance...the ground around me...That's it! He can only explode non living objects just like with regular altering! _Michael thought to himself.

"Going into a little lunacy before death? That smirk of yours is surely craziness. You're torn up and beaten there is nothing you can possibly do in order to take control of this fight. So I advise surrendering and coming with us as a prisoner."

"Why so Victor can kill me and take my lance?"

"No, Victor won't kill you, he simply wants to study YOU." Dillon emphasized.

"If you were going to live I'd have you tell him to screw off. I'm nobody's experiment. However, since you're going to be dieing in the next couple of minutes that doesn't matter." Michael threatened rushing forward and leaping up five feet into the air. No explosion came until Michael landed. The ground exploded with a huge explosion. "There was no way for you to dodge that one." Dillon said sure of himself.

There was a hole in the roof. "Hmmm I didn't think that it was powerful enough to create a hole in the ceiling...oh well. Men go down and fetch his body." Dillon ordered the remaining guards. A column shot out of the air behind Dillon carrying Michael. "Dilloooooooon!" Michael screamed leaping from it.

Without summoning his lance Michael used his metal arm drawing back and throwing a punch with his metal arm. Dillon quickly yanked off his watch and altered it into a dagger to block with. "Surely you didn't think that my psychic weapon was the only weapon I had! I am still a user." Dillon said as they both landed on their feet. Michael decided to test his theory about close range again as he leapt forward. He aimed a punch at Dillon's face and let him have it. Dillon ducked and touched the floor pulling up a broad sword.

Michael himself pulled a katana only he knew he wouldn't last long enough to fight a good battle with it. Coming at Michael, Dillon screamed and thrust forward as Michael grabbed the blade with his metal arm and yanked it upward thrusting forward with his katana. Dillon created an explosion to separate the two but Michael dropped both swords and rushed forward grabbing the collar of Dillon's shirt.

Michael's fist made contact with Dillon's face knocking the lens off of Dillon's eye. Michael then kicked Dillon in the stomach sending him reeling backwards. Finally Michael spun backhanding Dillon to the ground. Panting Michael bent over and put his hands on his knees. Dillon, however wasn't done. He rose to his feet and poofed his lens back to his face. "Give it up Michael. I can make this last explosion finish you off"

Without responding Michael fell to the floor. His fabric had done all it could but now blood was leaking out of his torn open sides. "I see...all this time you've been losing blood and now this. Well I memorized the layout of this building and let's just stay your over the hole in the stairwell. I think falling to your death would be just about the most ironic thing so...lets do that." Dillon said exploding a hole around Michael.

In an instant reaction Michael's hand grabbed the ledge and Michael summoned his lance. He calculated the angle from where it was to Dillon's head...

"Sir! We couldn't find his body."

"That's fine, he's dead. I just made him fall 21 stories down the stair wel-" Dillon was cut off by the tip of the lance jetting up through the ceiling and straight through Dillon's forehead and out the top of his head sticking up two more feet. "Where did that come from?!" a guard yelled as an explosion knocked all the guards back five feet. Michael slowly climbed out of the hole he had been hanging from and limped for the roof border. He laid down on his stomach as a guard got up. "Wha?! You know what? Never mind! Your dead now! Wounded, and exhausted I'm just gonna kill you right here!" the guard said raising his gun.

Another guard noticed something on Michael's eye. It was a lens...the same one Dillon had used! "No, wait!" the other guard shouted as the guard pointing the weapon brought his hands up to shield himself and he flinched.

He lowered his arms and made a peek with his eyes.

"Psyche." Michael said dryly.

"You were bluffing the entire time...that doesn't matter now, games over now surrender."

At once Michael's ledge he was on altered to paper! It folded and fell off the edge! The guard's ran forward and saw Michael gliding down to the ground...on a giant paper airplane! _I hope you got away okay _guys... Michael thought as he glided in their direction.


	6. Chapter 6: Reuited In A Bloody Pile

Chapter Six: Reunited In A Bloody Pile

Kim awoke in a dark building. She was against the wall and she groaned as she got up.

"Son of a..." she muttered groaning as she stood up.

"So the girlie is in here after all!" came a grimmy voice.

Kim saw a dark ball come for her, and before her eyes could adjust to the light it was upon her. If it had not been for a flash tackling her to the ground she'd have been crushed meat. The dark ball smashed into the cement wall with a large shatter blowing her and whatever was holding her five feet from the wall.

As they skidded to a stop on the floor she looked up to see Rez holding her. He looked down at her and said "Stay down! This guy is tops and he didn't know you were in here. Stay here and he may not see you. His psyhic weapon is out and it's ability is to pulse rapidly when it hits anything blowing all around it away. It's a giant chain malice so stay down or die! I'm going to try to take him down so move!" he yelled kicking her in the shoulder as she slid back against the wall again."

Alright already, but geez did ya have to be so rough? Kim thought to herself.

"You ready to die yet rebel scum?" the grimy voice yelled at Rez.

"I will personally see to your downfall. Every user that Victor has will be killed as they are my enemies...and my enemies are those allied with Victor, so I will slay you!" Rez yelled as he ran forward at the large man. The man stood roughly six foot tall and was large bulging with a combination of muscle and fat. He wore no shirt and some very long jeans.

Rez dove to avoid a blow from the chain malice which made a broad sweep to the left. Running his hands along the ground he pulled out two daggers, one in each hand and leapt up in the air comming forward at the large man.

"Eat...this!" Rez said going to plunge the daggers into the man's belly. Before the daggers made contact, a flash from the ceiling came down wielding a sword made of light! The daggers flew left and right out of Rez's hands as he lost them stunned by the appearance of this new opponent.

This new opponent was fast and was upon Rez taking advantage of his stunned lack of defense. The man holding the sword of light brought it down vertically as if to cut Rez in half.

Falling down to avoid the blow Rez landed on his back and the sword stopped pursuing him. The man holding the sword made of light dodged to the right as the chain malice came down towards Rez.

To much! Rez screamed in his head as he formed a dome from the cement to cover him. This was a big mistake becuase as the ball hit the dome the exploding force smashed it to bits and the pulse smacked into Rez like a sack of cement and knocked him back slamming him face down into the wall upside down.

The man with the sword of light was now rushing to come to stab into Rez.

"No Rez!" Kim shrieked. This stopped the man as he looked to her slowly. A cruel smile came to his face as he quickly changed targets and ran at her. "Oh boy a female! The last ten were so delightful...I wonder if this one will squeal as they did...maybe even beg for her life?" he shrieked in a crazy high pitched voice running for her.

Rez peeled off the wall and landed flat on his back. "Kim!" he yelled slapping his flat palm to the ground and grunting as he focused all his attention to form one spike from just an inch to Kim's right. Just an inch to the right of her right arm pit a sharpened cement spike flew at the her attacker. He saw this and rolled left hitting the floor and skidding an inch or two before standing and watching Rez.

Why is he just watching me? Rez pondered...but the answer soon came to him in the form of a spikey ball heading for him.

Two seconds is all I'm asking for here! Rez shouted into his head as he ducked but the ball exploded into the wall behind him and as before the pulse launched him into the air towards the fat man. He landed on all fours still dizzy when he got his answer.

"To crush a rock...I need a rock..." Rez said. "I'm no tactician but...I just gotta put all my stakes on this one plan!" Rez yelled running at the fat man.

"Coming back for more? Stupid mistake!" the fat man sputtered jerking the chain ball back from where it was. With flying speed it came back towards Rez's back. He smirked and simply dodged to the left as the ball kept comming at the fat man. His eyes widened in disbelief as it made contact the spikes stabbed into his belly splattering blood to the floor. Then the pulse knocked the fat man up into the ceiling then he slowly as he peeled off it, he fell back to the earth. He landed on his spike ball which again pulsed him. This time he flew backwards dropping the chain and making it disappear.

As the fat man hit a pillar it crumbled and the fat man finally hit the floor skidding a few feet and stopping.

"The bigger they come...the harder they fall." Rez muttered turning his attention back to the man with the light sword. "Bloody hell!...No matter I'll just have to take you out fast little lassy!" he yelled revealing an irish accent. "Shame I won't get to enjoy this." he yelled moving his blade to plunge it into her stomach.

"Leave the girl alone !$#!" Rez yelled.

As he moved to block the man with the sword made of light again Rez saw he wasn't going to make it in time.

_I'm to far back I'll never make it I need a projectile! _ Rez thought quickly.

Focusing his thoughts he ripped off his shirt, it was now nothing more than wet tattered cloth, but he was gonna make it into what he needed. He altered it into a bow and the sleeve he had torn off he made into an arrow.

Aiming carefully, but speedily Rez let the arrow fly at his opponent.

Annoyed the man blocked the arrow cutting it in half. "Just give up already! Or did you want me to kill you first? You know what? I'm already in a foul mood, and so you can just die now! Plus with you out of the way I can enjoy…" he shot a nice look at Kim while drooling. "sweet potato pie…" he finished licking his chops.

Disgusted with this opponent Kim sneered "As if you could possibly get past Rez to get to me. Not to mention the fact Michael would kill you if you even laid a hand on me. In fact I'm sure he's on his way here now to slay you for your comments. He's probably pretty tired and cranky and he'll kill you if Rez doesn't."

"Who is this Michael your pathetic boyfriend or something?"

"He's my lover who'll come to my aid no matter where I am. He's the one who Victor couldn't kill, and Michael will kill Victor one day soon." Kim said.

At this the man with the sword made of light opened his eyes wider.

"I see…ol' metal arm. Yes Victor has put a nice bounty and Michael is currently top priority to Victor…so if it is as you say then if I capture you, Michael will come running." the man said smiling revealing two rows of sharp teeth.

"You filed your teeth?"

"Yes, what business is it of yours. You're just meat to my blade anyway!" the man yelled as he ran at Rez.

_The blade is pure light, I imagine he has a hidden ability he hasn't revealed yet either. I'm pretty tired, but I still have a good amount of fight in me. I can't make contact with that blade…_ thought Rez to himself.

As the light blade was thrust at Rez, the man with the blade smiled sensing victory was near.

"Aww so close and yet…" Rez muttered leaping up into the air. "So far away…"

"Heh think your safe up there?" the man yelled slashing his sword in a vertical motion and an arc of light as long as the blade itself flew up at Rez.

_It extends?! No…it detaches a wave of energy that is fired at the opponent…_

Flipping in midair, Rez barely dodged as it slashed open the bottom of his left leg.

Flinching as the wound opened and blood started to empty out of his body. _This is crazy…that must be his ability…but, now I'm wounded…I don't think it will slow me down to much. _

"You ready to lay down your life?"

"Heh, you must be pretty weak because I've been scrapped more than this, I fought Victor longer than you, not to mention…"

Rez's foot clashed with the ground and thin cement spikes shot out of the floor all aimed for the opponents head.

"You still bleed!" Rez finished his earlier sentence.

"Oh do I?!" the oppenent yelled spinning fast and slashing all the spikes in half.

"Wha?!"

The man was now upon Rez almost in an instant and he didn't have anything to block with. Without thinking he grabbed the blade, and threw it to the right. This mistake caused his left hand to burn fiercely.

"What a foolish man you are! You think you can grab pure light?!"

"When I fight I fight with it all on the table! For you to stab me would have been worse than this burn. By the way… look at my hand."

"It isn't there any…-" he was interrupted by a quick punch with that very hand that should have burnt off. Pieces of charred heat gloves now stuck to the opponents face searing him.

"You…altered…a glove…" the opponent looked down at Rez's feet. "…from your shoe?!"

"It's all on the table now…and if you'll notice I'm not wearing any shoes now."

The opponents eyes widened in fear as he realized this was true. A knife in Rez's left hand was now visible to the opponent.

With a quick dodge backwards the man nearly tripped and fell, but Rez had already thrown the knife. It stabbed the through the back of the hand the sword was in.

"You miserable little-" but he was cut off as Rez brought his arms in to his chest and then shot them off. Two discs now shot towards the opponent's lungs at blinding speed. They stuck into his body with a PPPCCKKK!

"Clark woulda been proud…what would he have said if he were still here?...checkmate?"

"I am still here you stupid." Said the old man limping in covered with burns.

"Clark! When we crashed and you stayed behind to stall the light man I thought you…"

"Nope…sorry you had to take on both of them. I killed all the soldiers in that squad. Not to mention I found this bloody mess." Rez said dragging Michael in out of the rain."

"MICHAEL!" Kim yelled running over to him and squeezing him in a big hug.

Clark had to separate the two for fear of her squeezing the blood out of him and him bleeding to death.

"God! Your all covered in blood and it looks like you've been through a huge battle! Did you fight Victor again?! I warned you mister and if you won't listen to my warnings on your own then I'll have to-" she was cut off by Rez,

"Nice of you to come AFTER I've defeated the two users..."

"Yeah well I woulda come sooner but bloodloss from MY OWN battle with a user and ten gunmen, was well as a flight in the cold rain kinda got to me a little."

"Oh yeah my first user knocked me around like a rag doll and the second that's a second one right after my first battle singed my left hand to where I can't move it and sliced me a couple times and I still defeated them. How was your 'battle' huh?"

"It was...explosive." said Michael dryly and scowling at Rez.

"We need to get moving, surely a squad could come looking for us at any minute."

"Your right, Clark how far are we from an entrance to your subway?"

At this Clark thought for a second and cleared his throat saying "The main entrance is about a half a mile south of here. We've got to move quickly."

Fifteen minutes later the bloody/wet group arrived at Clark's subway. He put his hand on the ground and disabled all the traps as they made their way down the stairs.

Michael who was on Rez's and Kim's shoulders plopped down on the couch and grimaced as his tailbone hit the cushion.

"So where does this leave us?" Rez asked.

"Clark do you have a first aid?"

"Of course I'll fetch it."

"Your in no shape just tell me where it is." Kim snapped.

"First subway car immediately to your left when you walk in..." Clark said sitting down in a rocking chair.

Clearing his throat Rez began again. "So...the squads have obviously completed square A ahead of schedule...they must be on their way to recruiting more users as we speak. Surely Victor has enough men now to work around the clock. This means that he's finish each quadrant even faster and it's only a matter of time before they begin to look underground...literally speaking of course." said Rez.

"Well strategically we need to sneak out and about on the streets and round up or warn as many users as we can. At this point ordinary people are pawns."

"They'll still be pawns with guns."

"None the less, users are what we have to fear now. The data file you snagged showed they have no idea how many there are. So of course they're gunning for as many as they can get until all are on their side or well...dead."

"Look one thing is clear, it'll be a couple days before any of us are healed...even with our healing sped up. So who is in the best shape now?"

"I hope you mean who will be in the best shape after a good night's rest you coot! None of you are even in shape to set foot out of this subway. Clark it took your last bit of altering ability to turn off and reset the traps. Rez, your still too exhausted from the fight even if you aren't wounded horribly. As for you Michael...your bleeding bad, you've got broken bones, AND your stamina is blown. You won't be out for a few days at LEAST.

Rez volunteered to put some dogs on to roast as he walked over to the freezer. Sliding it open, the mist hit his eyes and made them water.

"Freakin cold freezer..." Rez muttered feeling inside for the package of weiners. He finally found them and turned to an old table that hadn't been used in years.

He altered this table into firewood and carried all the stuff out of the train car muttering the entire way about his pain he had. He had no sooner piled the wood then they lit fire right in front of him. He leapt back with a startled expression upon his face.

Turning Rez saw Clark pretending to be asleep with a cap over his eyes. His cane had just poofed away and he now a simper on his face.

_That centenarian! He's gonna get a freakin permanent decathator-_ His thought was interupted by Kim telling him she wanted one hot dog and Michael wanted two. Rez put on four since Clark was 'asleep'.

"Okay gang listen up, Victor is gunning for as many users as he can get his hands on. So that leaves us three options. Storm the headquarters again and kill...we'll make a genocide of everything. Number two, we just go out on the streets and start killing as many as we can. Or final option, organize a rebellion army to counter-attack Victor's." said Michael.

"Well as much as I love the first two since they envolve mass and random killing I'm gonna have to say all three of those options sound like pure garbage, absolute dung if you get my drift."

"Aside from the colorful vocabulary of captain webster here, he has a point. Michael all those options are suicidal. Even the third one is nigh impossible. We'll get stabbed in the back and you know it. We can't trust anyone. All that aside...the third is also the most logical. You had it in mind to strengthen our forces, and that sounds best. I say we add a member to the team. Someone who fights like us and stands a chance of survival. An enemy of ours...yet the enemy of my enemy is my friend type thing..." said Clark going into a mumble

"You can't be thinking. There's only one person...NO! I ABSOLUTELY FORBID" But he was cut off by Kim jabbing a finger just below his right ribs a "weak" spot of Michael's. He gave a jump, shot her a look of death and sat down.

"You're thinking of Cane aren't you?"

"Stupid guy can't be dead yet. We'll just have to find him. There's one more thing I neglected to mention though...and this falls into number three as well. There's word going around of an underground organization. They're kind of a...cult proclaiming Jesus will come to release them of this city. They're fifty strong so far I know. I think they have a couple users...but they're top secret for a cult. Into some weird stuff, blood drinking, virgin sacrifice and so forth. Anyway, they'll surely fight against Victor since he's proclaiming himself as the 'New God'"

"How do you know about this?"

"Information network. I am one of the four great drug lords." Rez said.

"Four of us...each in charge of the drug trade of this city, and we have access to the only network of communication in this city." Rez continued.

"Alright alright, so this cult thing sounds worth investigating if they are gonna go against Victor. So I say we check them out. Do you know when and where they meet?" Clark asked.

"I can find out." Rez said pulling up the pointy sticks of hot dogs. He passed them out (even giving one to Clark) and they ate in silence. When finished they tossed the pointy sticks into the fire and settled in. Rez found some old books and he altered them into blankets.

"Alright, tomorrow Kim and I will track down Cane. Rez, you and Clark will sit in on this meeting of the...cult of mathis or whatever." Michael said.

"That's fine."

"Yeah, sounds good...well as good as good can sound in this City of Rain..."

_Yeah...good...such a rare word in the City of Rain._ Michael inhaled the last puff of his cigarette and then tossed the remains into the fire as it was mostly embers now. He lay down on the couch an Kim on top of him as he pulled a couple blankets around them, they were quickly asleep under the warm dry blankets.

Rez had made was looked like a doggie bed with the blankets in a circle around him and he lay on his stomach. Clark went inside his sub car and collapsed on his own bed. He pulled the quilt up to his chin and was instantly asleep.

_Great...Cults and Cane...the two things I hate most, _was Michael's last thought before he drifted off into the nothingness of sleep. The rain outside making the rythm to which they marched into slumber.


	7. Chapter 7: Jesus help us

Chapter 7:

Michael groaned as he awoke. He was sore...but his wounds had healed for the most part. He could walk...and alter somewhat.

He was not the first person awake obviously. He heard Rez and Kim's voice talking from a little ways down the tunnel of the subway. Clark was still snoring in his subway train car.

As he rose from the chair which creaked quite loudly Kim heard him and glanced over. She came running over to him.

"Oh no no no, you need to stay right in that chair or you'll-" cut off by Michael popping all his joints loudly he bent over, then twisted his neck both ways and finally popped his knuckles.

With a sigh of relief he walked over to Kim.

"I'm sorry what were you saying or I'll...spontaneously combust?"

"Let's not get our hopes up." said Kim dryly walking over to the fire Rez had restarted.

"Alright Michael I'm gonna go wake Clark up then we gotta go. According to the drug network this cult meets today at 11:00." said Rez walking into the subway car.

Rez shook Clark awake, the old man slowly opened his eyes and mumbled: "Mmm what time is it?"

"It's 10:30 and the cult meets in thirty minutes." Rez said.

Michael reached over and grabbed a plate, fished for a fork and grabbed whatever was cooking in the pan.

"Pancakes? Seriously? Wow I haven't had those in...I've never had pancakes in the city of rain..." Michael muttered.

"I know so I thought I'd try them, we gotta go find Cane so you'll need extra energy. Especially if he's fiesty."

"What's this we? No! It's to dangerous for you to go." said Michael cutting his pancake with his fork and taking a bite."

"That is pure rubish Michael! It'd be more dangerous for me to stay here and await ambush from Victor's squad than it would be for me to go with a body guard like you."

"That is neither here nor there. Besides, Cane is pure brute. If I have to fight him he could use you as a hostage and as if I didn't already have enough disability Kim."

"That's why I have this." Kim said lifting up her shirt half way to reveal a gun in her pants.

"I stole it from a guard Clark killed and I know how to use it."

"It doesn't matter a user has reflexes you could never defeat with a gun and that's why they're so ineffective."

"I'm going and that's that." Kim said

Michael realized that nothing he could say would convince her otherwise. He merely smirked and said "I suppose I don't have a choice. If you go-"

"Which I am" Kim interrupted.

"…then you listen to ME. When I move you move, when I duck you duck, and when I talk you listen do you understand me?"

"Yes, alright can we go now?"

"Slow down, in this fight, information is the difference in life and death for us. We need to know where he is, if he's still alive. We need to ask Rez real fast. The drug lords of the four sections of the city met and talked. His network will be of great importance to us." Michael finished.

Kim sighed and rolled her eyes, "Fine just hurry up or I go without you."

Michael slapped his forehead. _I thought doctors were supposed to be people of patience…wow that's a pretty bad pun…_ Michael thought to himself sighing at his own lame joke.

Rez approached him and said "Operations begin in a few minutes. The drug lord of section C confirmed that he had seen Cane a few days ago killing a squad of soldiers. It was apparent he was fighting desperately since he doesn't have a psychic weapon he can rely on."

"So he's in section C?"

"Yes, last seen outside of a brothel heading south with two prostitutes."

"You don't say?" said Michael grinning halfway.

Kim obviously overheard his tone of voice and cut in. "So, he was heading to the south end of the C quadrant. What's down that way."

"That is where things get antsy; the information just says that he was going that direction. The thing that is scary is the only major place of abandonment down that way is an old thirty story hospital. It hasn't ever been used or even touched. People seem to think it's…well…bad luck to go to a hospital in this hell-whole."

"Well ok regardless we'll head that way. A hospital would be a good place to hide. Plus it would contain medical equipment that restores every night to exactly the way it was. Not to mention a fully stocked cafeteria. So he might be healing. How long ago-"

Rez interrupted before he could finish "Just yesterday."

Michael's eyes widened "God! They're already in section C just yesterday?! That gives us about a day until they head into this section!"

"Which is why this mission is so desperate Michael! Get going and find him! If you can't bring him to our side leave him be he'll do enough damage if any more to Victor's army whether he's with us or not. We know he hasn't joined up with Victor. Also this Church of Mathis cult group may or may not be a nice ally in silencing Victor." Clark said in his strategic voice.

_Geez he's like Alexander the great and Winston Churchill in one freakin body._ Rez thought to himself.

Michael walked over and grabbed his trench coat which Kim had quickly sewn back together as well as she could this morning before he awoke.

"Fine, let's go then." Michael said as he walked up Clark's steps and into the rain.

"Can you make me an umbrella?" Kim asked.

"No, it'll stand out too much and if we have to run it'll cause more of a scene and slow us down." Michael said.

Rez saw some old magazines on the ground scattered and dirty. He put them together in a pile and altered them into a poncho. He handed it to Kim.

"Can you make it purple?" she asked winking.

Rez laughed for a couple seconds and ended it with a loud deep "NO!"

She made a pouty face and ran and caught up with Michael. Closer to the top he got down flat to the steps and motioned for Kim to do the same.

He looked into the rainy street and saw no one but a dead drunkard they had heard the night before outside. He was stabbed through the neck.

Kim grimace at the sight of him and Michael shushed her as he leapt into the air and did a front flip landing and ran to the alley between two buildings.

Putting his hands flat on each wall he altered a simple pulley system with a large basket built into the wall. He motioned Kim over and she followed.

"What's this for?" she asked.

"What did you think we'd travel on the streets? Too dangerous, that's why Clark and Rez are taking underground railway and sewer system to go find this cult." Michael told her.

She climbed in and he began pulling the basket up to the top of the building where he altered a ladder in the wall to the remainder of the roof. She climbed on and went to the top of the roof, he followed right under her.

"You really do have a nice butt." He said slapping her in the butt. Kim merely smirked down at him and said "Just a shame there's no swimming pools here in the city of rain. I miss my bikini years."

Michael merely looked away for a second and mouthed "WOW!"

They got to the top and Michael looked at Kim as he pulled out two pole vault sticks from the roof.

"What do you expect me to do with that?" she asked pointing at it.

He tossed one with her. "Well you said you did field and track in high school and I don't have the strength to both fight Cane and transmute a bridge from roof to roof.

"Wait…no-no-no-no." Kim said shaking her head.

"Better get a move on if you intend to come. If you don't the basket is still up here if you intend to go back."

"Weasel you had this planned from the start…" Kim muttered rushing towards the roof edge and poking the pole into the edge corner and bending it as she tried as hard as she could not to scream. She flew across and landed gracefully and turned back to Michael putting her hands on her hips and bending forward blowing him a kiss as if you taunt him. "Come on." He body language said.

Michael ran forward imitating her movement and he landed on his feet falling forward on his hands.

"Not so easy huh?" she said hands still on her hips.

"Yeah well I'm injured remember?"

"Mmmhmmm injured…don't bend your neck so far to look at my butt then." She said.

Clark and Rez were walking through the sewer which of course was nothing but underground tunnels full of nothing. This was just one more fascinating thing about the city of rain. When you flushed your urine down the toilet it simply disappeared. No knew where it went.

Rez and Clark walked in silence as they came to a dead end.

"This is it on the other side of this wall is the cult meeting which should start in exactly two minutes. They have a special synchronization with their watches. You won't guess what it cost to get one watch." Rez said scratching his head.

"Now get quiet I'm gonna very carefully alter a slit in the wall so we can listen in." Clark said. He ran his hand along the wall for a second and then two sets of eyeholes appeared. Rez approached his and looked in.

Clark carefully pulled out sets of headphones as well. He made a small opening and slid a small unnoticeable microphone through. Rez flashed a "A Ok" sign and put his on.

Turning the dial to listen more closely, Rez looked forward and saw what looked like a bunch of members of the Ku Klux Klan. "Oh my…" Clark muttered staring at the crowd estimating at Fifty people.

"God welcomes you brethren! Now we meet once again in secret because the Anti-Christ Victor has taken over two sections of the city and it working on the third. Soon we will need to start our guerilla operations! God wills it!

He has sent me to you people to round up those who's souls will be saved in the new coming of Jesus Christ! Now we differ from those other fools that call themselves Christians! You see those fools think that Jesus is just gonna pop up one day out of the blue trumpets blowing!

What sorry fools they are and they'll realize that when they are burning in Hell! I'm here to tell you that Jesus is here, he is among us! HE IS WITH US PHYSICALLY AT THIS MOMENT!"

The man speaking pointed at a man behind him sitting on a bench who's cloak and and hood were red and the rest of the cloaks were black.

"This, fellow brothers and sisters is Jesus Christ reincarnated into the flesh once more! He has come and shown himself to his disciples! We follow him and give him everything! This very morning we have a stunning offering!"

He walked over to a big thing under a tarp and yanked it off. Inside was a naked and bruised nine year old boy. It was obvious his legs were broken and he was tied down blood all over him. His tears and muffled screams were too much Clark stood up ready to charge through and kill.

"Easy! You idiot! Wait a second! That's a crowd of fifty in there an unknown number are users." Rez hissed.

"He's just a kid! He's not even double digits! I'll kill the freaks I'll slaughter them all!" Clark hissed grabbing his wrist to steady himself after his enraged outburst. Even he knew though that the odds were against them.

"I have seen the fools that call themselves users! They are nothing compared to our Jesus! He has a weapon with him that allows to see the moves of his opponents before they even attack! He stood toe to toe with Victor and even Victor could not kill him! He demands obedience! He demands sacrifice! Now brethren we sacrifice this virgin offering to his greatness!"

The leader pulled out a canister and poured the stuff inside all over the kid struggling to move away. The leader was about to strike a match when the so called "Jesus" stopped his hand in mid strike.

"It appears we have visitors." He said.

The red cloaked figure placed his hand on the wall and the wall in front of Rez and Clark fell revealing them. They looked at each other bewildered but ready for a fight.

"Wait! Before you make that next move and draw your weapons let me ask you to consider who it is you attack. The great Jesus is of course merciful if you'll just bow before me." said the man in the red cloak.

"And if we don't then you'll douse the kid in fire?"

"Heh, whether you bow or not the kid dies a glorious sacrifice. What better way to die then as a sacrifice to Jesus Christ? Of course we'll slaughter you like we will everyone else who refuses to bow as well."

"You religious people are all nuts. This is why all religious nations eventually fell. We'll bow to no MAN." Clark said summoning his staff.

"And what is your choice?" asked the cloaked man to Rez.

"The purpose of coming here was simply to find out whether we should join you to fight Victor."

"By all means! You both are users and you could put your talents to use for the Christ!" said the original speaker/leader.

"However, now that we know your morals and conditions we'll take our chances on our own. You cult members can fight him on your own."

"Jesus doesn't bargain…nor does he pardon such offense. Calling us a cult is disrespectful." said the minister speaker.

"Who do you think you are to insult the Christ?!" one member of the crowd shouted.

"Yeah! Christ will smite you like he has so many others!" yet another shouted.

"I see, you gather to this guy cause he's stronger than the rest of you and you think he's gonna make your problems disappear? You fools are weak! Your gathering around a pillar standing in a collapsing building! Victor can break the laws of altering themselves and you think your freakin Jesus incarnate can beat him?" Clark shouted furiously.

"Kill him Jesus!"

"Smite the like the Sodom and Gomorrah they are!"

The kid in the cage however looked at them eyes pleading begging for rescue.

"I'm afraid I'll tolerate no more, and before you launch any flames at me I think you better remember this kid drenched in gasoline." said the Jesus incarnate.

_Flames…he knows?! How can he see what I'm about to do?_ Clark asked himself hysterically.

Rez didn't move a muscle at this point he knew it was imperative that he stand his ground until Clark directed him, after all Clark was the strategist.

"Clark…ok time to put that chess pieces mind of your to work. If he knew you were about to roast him then certainly he is a user of some kind…" Rez whispered to him out of the side of his mouth.

No one moved, time stood still as Rez and Clark stared down this "Christ". The crowd didn't even murmur a single sound. Not even breathing could be heard among the silence.

"Rez…your information was that they had other users within this group right?"

"Yes…about three or four out of fifty. No individual data could be provided."

"If that is the case you listen and listen good because these instructions will be the difference between our lives and us becoming corpses. You watch that crowd for any activity whatsoever and then you silence any movements from any user as fast as you can." Clark said.

"What will you be doing?"

"I'm gonna crucify this so called Christ." Clark said determined as he ran forward down the main aisle of people.

_That's a bit sacrilegious…_ thought Rez to himself dryly.

_Shut up! It's time to focus! Your focus means the difference in life and death of this old man and you! Now watch dang it watch them like a vulture!_

Clark held his staff close ready to launch a wave of flame at the red cloaked man. The red cloaked man was merely smiling was his left eye glowed…This was peculiar Clark had never seen something like it the way it glowed and focused in on him.

As a river of flame moved forward as fast as lightning the so called 'Christ reincarnate' leapt into the air to avoid it.

"Gotcha." Clark muttered appearing right under where the figure had leapt. He held his cane out wide as a cyclone of fire spun upward engulfing the cloaked man.

"Seeing the future doesn't help you if you can't avoid it." muttered Clark as he walked over to the kid.

Before he could get halfway across the raised area a huge rock fell in his way!

Clark hopped back as the rock expanded and then formed a wall around Clark slowly moving in.

The man claiming to be Christ reincarnated stood in front of where the rock landed.

"You see what's funny is I saw that future and I now I see…you!" he cried leaping back as a column of flame shot out of the ground.

Clark breathing hard climbed out of a hole in the ground and stood with a puzzled expression.

_Not only did he survive my flame column by turning his cloak into a stone cocoon he knew I'd melt the ground under me and come from under him with an attack! He obviously can see somewhat of the future. _Clark concluded.

Back on top of a rainy wet rooftop Michael and Kim stood looking down at a squad of soldiers from Victor. "Knew we'd run into them eventually. The good thing is they haven't spotted us yet." said Michael as he kept low.

"No more pole vaulting then?" Kim asked setting the pole down. They'd been at it for a half an hour. "I'm exhausted." Kim said sighing and sitting down.

"I know, that's why I didn't want to bring you with me, I didn't want to be slowed down." replied Michael sitting down next to her.

"Gee you sure know how to flatter a woman. So what now, if we can't go leaping into the air anymore without risk of being spotted what now?"

"I didn't expect them to come so soon…we're what, a half mile from the hospital? I guess we just have to…well. I don't know, we'll just have to wait for them to look in the opposite reaction and jump for it."

"You realize one miscalculation with these jumps and we fall to our deaths right?"

"Don't remind me." Michael said shaking his head.

Michael gave the signal and Kim ran forward leaping to the next rooftop. She landed and rolled to a stop. The squad looked up at the building she was at!" Michael paused for the moment he didn't know what to do. If they came up here Michael and Kim would be spotted and he'd have to fight another user.

_My options are limited here…please look the other way." _Michael thought staring down at them. The guard did the exact opposite and began barking orders and pointing up at the roof.

Michael mouthed the words "Run" to Kim as she took off for the direction of the hospital. Cain would protect her. Ironically in a previous fight when Kim was present Cain refused to involve her in the fight, he said "She's a female, and in addition my conflict is with you…that's why I'll kill you and leave her." Kim was out of sight when the door to the roof busted open and guns were pointed at Michael.

"Hands up… now! What were you doing watching us from up here?" the guard asked harshly. The other guards were running up the stairs at this point and Michael wanted to wait until they were all together.

As the guards came up they bunched up in the stair well.

"Amateurs…" Michael muttered under his breath.

"What was that?" demanded a guard.

All the guns were currently pointed at Michael. He couldn't make a single move as he held his hands up in the air.

"Get on the ground now!"

"Which one is your user?"

"Now!"

"I'll get down when I know which person is your user." Michael said calmly.

The guards looked at each other nervous- who was this man who could oppose them so easily?

"It's me." Said a tall calm looking man with slicked back black hair.

"Now do as we say and get down."

"Take your monocle off too." one said motioning for it to be laid on the ground.

Michael smiled "So you noticed my monocle huh? It's nice isn't it? I like to think it delivers an explosive fashion statement."

Those were the last words the guards heard as they were all blown to bits with a huge explosion. Several were blown off the roof and those in the center of the explosion were literally…no more.

"Kim would be repulsed." Michael said leaning over breathing hard.

"Geez-I guess I need some proper training before I go using another user's weapon." _I-I put too much power in it. This lens really takes it out of you if you don't limit the flow of power coming out. _Michael thought.

Not realizing that one escaped Michael was caught off guard as the user that dodged the explosion came down out of the sky.

"I see you're the one who killed Dillon. You should be happy to know that he was my brother."

"I don't care if he was your mother, he got in my way just like your in my way now. Move or I'll kill you."

"I don't take threats lightly from the one who lived through Victor's entourage; however, I will not budge until you've been slaughtered."

"Is your psychic weapon that powerful?"

"Yes and I-"

The man stopped, his eyes went up into his head and then his head fell forward as blood came out of his mouth. A dagger was protruding the spot of the user where the heart would be.

"I see you came to visit us first. It's been a little while…Cain." Michael said.

Cain dropped the now dead body onto the ground as he looked directly into the eyes of Michael.

"Why are you out here? Victor has guards looking high and low for you." Cain said without any emotion at all.

"We're here to ask you to join with us to fight Victor. One way or another we know you're going to fight him. Why not fight him with us?"

"I hate you though, why would I join forces with the man I hate?"

"What about all that the enemy of my enemy is my friend crap?"

"That's different you are also the enemy of my enemy you see. I could just as easily join Victor to kill you."

"Stop talking out your fat end, if you were going to do that you wouldn't have killed a squad of his soldiers."

"What's to stop me from killing YOU right now?"

"Me and my lance that's what. You can't kill me Cain, you know you can't."

"You're injured still I know that you had to kill another user to get that new weapon of yours. Also you've been using minimal altering. Instead of making bridges to the other buildings you've been using those sticks."

"So what? You're injured as well. The only reason you were able to kill that user was because I distracted him. Face it, us fighting here is pointless. Just come with us and help with the assassination of Victor."

Cain looked up into the sky and seemed to think about it.

Kim showed up and walked behind him putting a hand on his shoulder.

"Cain, Michael doesn't have the ego to say it, but we need your help. We can't beat Victor on our own. Would it not make sense for you to help kill Victor?"

"Keep your mouth shut woman, I need no kind words from you. You can take your hand off me too, and aren't you a little too trusting? I could kill you with you being this close."  
"No…you couldn't I've had my finger on the trigger of this gun the entire time, and Michael is three times faster than anyone to protect me." Kim said full of confidence.

The next few moments seemed to last forever as no one in the group knew what to say then without warning many nails as if from nowhere shot out of the ground coming up with enough force to kill anyone they hit.

Cane stood still as the nails flew up past him. Kim wasn't as composed as she leapt back. The nailes flew up and scrapped her legs in several areas. She hit the ground screaming as Michael, who couldn't move without guarantee of death froze as well.

The user they thought to be dead earlier now stood before them.

_How? Cain shoved a blade right through the man's heart. I saw it he didn't miss it was right through the center of the heart. Michael couldn't have a done a more accurate job so how is this man still walking?_ Michael asked himself sweating.

"I see by the looks on your faces you are shocked. I don't blame you. It's not as if I told you any of my secrets. I'm afraid any further battle would be pointless so I'm just going to kill you now since you lack the ability to do so to me. By the way, It is Victor's policy that those who will die shall have the name of their executioner…your executioner is named Chad."

"Well Cain make your choice, are you with him or me?" Michael asked looking at Cain.

"You or Mr. Immortal here, either way is a whole new card game."

"Then shuffle the deck because we're in for a gamble or two." Michael replied smiling.

"You fools, it doesn't matter how many you have two or two million you can't kill me!" Chad yelled

"Well I sure as heck won't give up without trying!" Michael yelled rushing forward and aiming a punch at Chad's face.

"You know you and that metal arm are quite a legend among those who follow Victor. Your known as the one that got away…"

Michael spun still coming forward swinging his metal fist around for a back fist.

Chad ducked and rolled behind Michael drawing a gun. Cain was on it, he had ran forward kicking the gun out of Chad's hand.

Chad swore and dove for the gun but Michael hit the ground making the concrete roof swallow the gun just as Chad got to it.

"That's just fine, just means your deaths will be slower and more painful." said Chad getting up.

Cain ran forward and aiming a kick at Chad's head.

Being extremely agile, Chad did a back flip out of Cain's range and as he landed he came forward catching Cain off balance. He landed a good punch in Cane's gut sending him backward.

Taking the initiative at the moment, Michael ran in a wide arc to the left away from Cain and Chad. He then stopped where he was and placed both hands on the ground. Spikes shot up into the air and came back down towards Cain and Chad.

Seeing the spikes Cain leapt back still clutching his stomach from the last blow. Chad didn't even flinch. The spikes came down stabbing him in many areas. One finally finished him off coming down through his head vertically. It went in good so only the tip of the back side was sticking out.

Chad's eyes rolled into the back of his head and he fell face forward.

"The idiot wasn't fast enough." said Michael.

"Don't be so sure…" said Cain.

At this point the faded eyes that were Chad's became white again and his head "spit" the spike out. He got up his head wound and other wounds closing. He breathed in a fresh breath of air and smiled at them.

"Well gentlemen how's it feel to have all efforts wasted?"

Cain talked out of the corner of his mouth quietly for Michael and Michael only to hear.

"Listen, let's stab all of his major organs. We'll surround him and do a cement snake kind of thing. You can do that right?"

"Like heck I can. I always was more artistic than you."

"Can it or I'll just kill you both." said Cain not a bit amused.

The two did as planned and made two arcs each in opposite directions while Chad merely stood there as if he already knew their efforts were futile.

Cain and Michael moved as one. They both hit the ground and pressed their hands to it.

As if rehearsed many cement spikes extending like snakes toward Chad. Cain's and Michael's pierced every organ they thought was vital to life. They hit the heart, the kidneys, lungs, stomach, bladder, and liver.

Chad fell over with the snake spikes draining his blood.

"That ought to fix him." said Cain sighing in relief as he got up. Before Cain could get all the way up the snake spikes he launched turned back towards him! He didn't have time to dodge as six different spike serpents came rushing at him from all directions.

The heads all exploded before they reached Cain causing them all to fall to nothing. Cain looked around and saw Michael breathing hard…very hard. He was wearing that lens monocle thing again.

Chad got up and pulled the remaining spikes out of him.

"You dare to use my brother's weapon in my presence? I think I'll kill you before I do your ugly prison inmate looking friend over there.

As he started for Michael, Cain pulled two daggers out of his pocket and hurled them at Chad. He speedily leapt into the air avoiding them. Michael caught them and tossed them off the roof.

Seeing that Chad was coming for him Michael summoned his lance. He ran at Chad leaping into the air and slicing down. Chad stepped left as Michael didn't even let his lance hit the ground.

Michael pulled it up and aimed for Chad's head.

"Throw it!" Chad laughed manically.

Instead the end shot forward connected with the orange beam. It launched right through Chad's head.

He began to fall backwards but he was already coming back to life.

"Enough of this! If I can't kill you I'll immobilize you!" Michael shouted

He retracted his lance and moved very fast when he hit the ground. Even Chad gasped as Michael suddenly "appeared" in front of him. First he came up and spun fast. The lance glowed orange as he charged it. He cut clean through Chad at the waist.

Before Chad's upper half had hit the ground. Michael sliced down cutting off the left arm, then came up as fast cutting off the right arm.

Finally Michael spun so fast even Cain's eyes lost track of his movement for a second. Starting a quiet growl and doing a crescendo into a scream of rage and hate he cut Chad's head off.

Blood drenched Michael now. A recent splotch from cutting the head off landed over Michael's lips. He spat it to the ground and looked up letting the rain clean his face.

Cain walked over with a look that expressed his shock.

"Why didn't you ever do that when you fought me?"

"Wasn't ever mad enough, you never laid a hand on Kim so I always considered our 'fights' more 'duels to the death'."

Laughing was heard from Chad's head as his body parts all melted into nothingness! Then his neck glowed as bright light glowed and his body grew back out of nothing.

"Aww #." Cain swore and spat.

"# indeed." Agreed Michael as they watched Chad reassemble.

Clark was sweating now…he had been outwitted, something he didn't like to have happen. He was a strategist and now he was being beat at his own element!

"I suppose your about ready to give up? Your generation is spent…you are the last sinful generation before I rapture everyone of your kind to Hell." said the Christ impostor.

"You can try of course, but even a user isn't God here. Victor proved that when he ended in a stalemate with my friend."

Rez was sweating no one from the crowd was doing anything! This meant that they were scared to interfere in a fight that their Jesus was fighting. They feared him so much they didn't want to interfere for fear of death.

Seeing that he was wearing down, Clark stepped back ready to go on the defensive.

"Wearing down? What now are you going sit down and watch Television old man?"

This man was making Clark more angry by the minute and then it hit Clark. This man knew he was tired…exhaustion. He knew he was angry…anger what did the two have in common?

_What do Exhaustion and Anger have in common that this man can use them against me?_ Clark asked himself.

Looking back and forth Rez didn't relax. _Forget the crowd! I might need to attack this Jesus incarnate freak. So I've got to keep an eye on both. Focus Rez Focus!_ Rez thought to himself.

Clark now knew how this man was operating! This is it! _Calm down, if he senses excitement he'll know that you've figured it out. Alright, if this man can predict my moves through my emotions then if I remain calm…no he's got the kid he can use as a hostage. I need to keep moving and attacking or he'll know I'm putting together a strategy. That much I can do now._ Thought Clark.

Clark aimed his staff upward and launched flames up to the ceiling bringing a good chunk downward towards the Jesus incarnate.

_That's the strategy then, I'll get angry and let him read my moves to aim at the pillars and bring the room down. This way he'll think that's what I'm trying to accomplish, which is in fact reality. When the roof caves he'll be distracted getting away so I'll nab the kid and escape with Rez. I can't defeat this man as is. I'll need long term planning but mission accomplished we now know this cult is against us._

Clark now ran at one of the nearby pillars holding the room up shouting loudly. "You are a fake! Your religion is fake! I'll burn you all to ashes."

Rez saw Clark stamp the ground with his right foot three times. Something was about to happen. Knowing that ahead of time they had discussed that if Clark had a plan he'd use this signal so Rez had to best interpret the course of action that was about to happen.

"You're going for the pillars. You aim to bring the room down and in the confusion get away. Clark if this Jesus incarnate can see the future don't you think he'll realize your strategy?"

The Jesus incarnate leapt around trying to avoid the flame. His eye was acting up. "He's angry so why can't I see what he's going to do next? This eye always reads the emotion and then shows me what comes next! Why?! Why isn't it showing me anymore?!" the incarnate hissed under his breath.

_The only possibility is he's faking…it's fake anger to make me fall for it. This means he has figured my emotion ability out, but he still doesn't know that I know he's faking. If he's randomly shooting then- _The incarnate's thoughts were interrupted by a large part of the roof falling in and smashing three of his followers. The other scattered for the exit.

"Save us Jesus!"

"Jesus! Please bring my daughter back to life!" an old woman pleaded on her knees.

"My people! Flee, our next meeting will continue as planned! I myself will stay behind and kill these demons. For now flee before they feast upon your souls!" the Jesus incarnate yelled still avoiding Clark's flame.

Clark had taken out all the pillars now except one. He turned his attention to it, the damage was done. This room was already collapsing. The center remaining pillar was only buying time before the room collapsed.

All that remained now were Rez, Clark, the boy, and the Jesus incarnate.

"So you made my people flee huh? You think I'm weaker without them?"

"No, you told them to flee remember? And now I'm going to kill you!" shouted Clark with as much fake anger as he could muster. The Jesus incarnate smiled.

_Your plan was to bring the room down and end in a stalemate the entire time. Well fine, take your stalemate we'll meet again, but you see I'm not going away without a price _thought the Jesus incarnate.

Clark mustered what strength he had left to make a giant fireball at the last column knowing that it would bring the remainder of the room down. He started to move towards the original entrance where Rez stood.

"Rez alter the ground and save the kid!" he shouted.

Before Rez could so so the Jesus incarnate snatched the kid and hurled him in the way of the fireball.

"NO!" Clark shouted but Rez held him back.

"He's soaked in Gas! Even if you got to him the fire would roast him!"

Clark watched the Jesus figure disappear as the fireball hit the kid and roasted him alive and continued on destroying the column.

Tears fell from Clark's eyes as he watched the screaming kid roll on the floor crying with his mask his still on. The kid was burning as the rubble buried him alive.

"Why…what did he do to anyone? You know what Rez…he won. That Jesus incarnate defeated me and burned the kid. The one thing I set out to do and he stopped me."

Rez hearing this and seeing tears from Clark's eyes walked over and stood at Clark's level. He raised his hand and slapped Clark across the face. A loud CAP Was heard down the hallway.

"Listen and listen well Clark. Our mission was to spy on the cult, did we do that? The answer is yes. Our mission was to determine if we could ally ourselves with them, did we do that? Again the answer is yes. So you tell me what part of our plan included saving that child? No part, what would you have done? Would you take him back with us? Raise him like an adoptive father?"

"I could have…I could have-" another slap stopped his sentence.

"Clark wake up! This is war, there are casualties! People die and that's just the way things are! If/when I die it'll be a casualty! That kid, it doesn't matter how old he was or how he died. He died and that's the end of his story. He'd have been dead weight anyway. He can't fight, he had no skills for our disposal. Why do you think we keep Kim around? She's a doctor, she can heal us that's the only reason. Michael knows this too so don't get worked up over one stupid waste of time!"

"He was a human being and we could have saved him! It was our obligation-" this time Rez full on delivered a punch to Clark's face full of tears.

Clark collapsed and fell down against the wall of the sewer.

"Listen to me! He was trash! God forsaken trash! He was only good to be killed and he would have slowed us down ending in our demise as well! It's basic strategy numero uno! Keep your emotions out of strategy, forget obligations! Your job as strategist is to keep US alive. Not every little orphan that has a tear jerking story."

This time Clark rose slowly and wiped the tears from his eyes as a new killing expression set about his face. "Rez, my strategy now calls for me to kill that man. I'll crucify him if it's the last thing I do." And with that they set off back for the headquarters.

Michael hit the ground and slid over to almost the edge of the building. Cain had been stabbed twice in his left leg so any amazing jumps or leaps were out for him.

Chad had regenerated beyond all their attempts to kill him and Michael and Cain had no ideas left as they faced him.

"You know what I'm going to do now? Since you stole someone near to me I'm going do the same to you…only your going to get a special treat. You can watch as I slowly torture your woman here." said Chad.

With Cane on the ground struggling to pull the two knives out of his leg Michael ran over to get in front of Kim.

Chad was faster this time and he reached into the ground and barbed wire shot out! Dozens of feet of barbed wire flew at Kim! Michael skidding in front of her with one foot on the ground altered her ground she stood on to move sideways.

He took the barbed wire full on and landed in a tangled mess as Chad made the barbed wire get Michael's limbs in the air so he couldn't touch anything all the wire melding into the ground securing him where he was.

It easily ripped through his coat as Chad made it nice and tight. Michael screamed in pain as barbed wire pulled closer on him. He couldn't move without getting nasty scratches and tearing himself open.

"And now…" said Chad as he easily overpowered Kim and slung her to the ground. She screamed in protest but he altered cement handcuffs that held her hands and legs to the ground.

"Kim!" Michael yelled struggling only to scream in more pain.

"I think I'll start with a nice dagger and slowly cut open your sides." He said taking his dagger and doing just that. He worked slowly up towards her right side.

Kim screamed bloody murder as Michael tearfully cried out to her in pain and sadness.

With one side freshly open and blood leaking Chad moved to the other side and slowly slid the dagger upwards smiling the entire time.

Michael screeched as he struggled amongst the pain to the point he was bleeding terribly from all his cuts. He couldn't move his limbs. Chad on the other hand was moving his limbs slowly up Kim's body as he got closer to her breasts.

"Maybe I'll cut these to pieces as well." Chad said looking in Michael's direction as he positioned the blade above her.

At this Michael struggled more rapidly. His thoughts were united in one thing: the slow and utterly painful death of Chad. With his metal arm he wrapped it around the barbed wire and pulled as hard as he could. Michael's metal arm made sparks as he worked rapidly to get little bits of the barbed wire off.

Michael's flesh arm was free now and he summoned his lance. In one fluid sharp motion he cut himself free spinning and rising up. Blood was dripping from his cuts like crazy but he didn't care.

Chad didn't notice he was up. He started down with the knife for Kim's breasts and an explosion knocked him off of her and the knife over the roof edge.

Michael was fast, beyond fast as his emotions of hate and his mind working for Chad's death united. Michael appeared behind Chad with such speed he couldn't react.

He landed a blow at the base of the neck where it meets the spine and Chad fell over at once. Michael picked Chad up by the neck and choke slammed him to the roof. Michael then gouged Chad's eyes out with his metal fingers. Chad screamed loudly and Michael screamed louder.

"Shut it!"

Michael then jammed his metal hand up into the bottom of Chad's jaw so hard blood shot out and he pulled with all his might until he ripped Chad's lower jaw off! With blood gushing everywhere Chad fell backwards in tears and wailing.

This was wear Michael took his lance and jabbed it strait down into Chad's testicles. Michael stamped his foot and cement handcuffs chained him to the floor so he didn't even had the ability to roll back and forth in pain.

"Please, please! Stop already I'll do anything!"

"What did you do when I asked you to stop torturing Kim?"

"That was different!"

"How so?"

"I let her live!"

"Then that's where we differ." said Michael.

"By the way that sparkling thing back in your throat? I finally figured it out." said Michael as he shoved his metal hand down the man's throat and ripped out with much pain a diamond. It had a heart engraved on it. It was about the size of a fifty cent piece.

"So here was your psychic weapon that allowed you to regenerate. I wondered what that was."

"There take it! Just please spare me!" the man yelled.

At this Michael took his lance and cut the man deeply and in many spots for the next thirty seconds randomly stabbing in areas just to hear the man scream and cry.

Michael cut his arms and legs off so he couldn't alter and then stabbed him for another fifteen seconds. Without his healing ability he'd die within the next five minutes of blood loss.

Sensing it wasn't enough Michael realized Chad's testicles regenerated before he pulled the diamond out so he walked over and stamped his foot on them many times until they were thoroughly non-existent.

Chad was crying and balling and screaming all at once it seemed.

Cain walked over and put a hand on Michael's shoulder. "That's enough, do you think Kim wants to see you enjoy this? Let's just go."

Walking over to her shaking body Michael re-altered his coat and put it on her. He altered bandages and wrapped her up and carried her wedding style.

"It's ok, we're leaving now. He's gone." Michael said whispering to her. She was still whimpering and shaking.

"Cain, if you want to join them fine, but seeing what you just saw I wanted to ask you to join our team. We simply want Victor dead."

Michael turned to leave and Cain walked silently following as if to say "Sure, I'll join." Everyone made their way back…new pains were started and new scars carved. Unfortunately for Michael and the others it would take much more than a few fights and killings to survive the City of Rain.


	8. Chapter 8: Enter: April

Chapter 8: Enter: April

Looking left then right Michael was kinda in the conversation and at the same time he wasn't.

"Do you understand what I'm saying Michael? We can't ally ourselves with them. They were one of our last hopes to help fight Victor and they're all crazies." Rez was saying.

Michael was thinking of other things at the moment. He lifted his metal arm wondering if it'd ever go back to normal. He had done something amazing by stopping Victor's altering on his arm. He didn't know how to reproduce the effects from that night and so far he had been unsuccessful on figuring out what exactly happened.

"Michael?" came Kim's voice as she put a hand on his shoulder.

The whole group, including Cain, was sitting around a fire in lawn chairs. They had just finished a breakfast of hickory smoked sausages.

"I'm fine, I just have a lot on my mind." he replied ignoring her hand.

Clark took his turn to speak now. He cleared his throat and said "Michael, you mentioned a while ago that you stole a folder or two from Victor's building that night? What did you find?"

"Oh yeah, I kinda forgot about that...I left it in my apartment when the soldiers attacked. It's in a compartment I'd altered into the wall." Michael said feeling he'd just dashed their hopes again.

Clark sighed and looked at Cain.

"Well, you ARE with us right? Do you want to help us get that back?" he asked staring him in the eye.

"Wait, hold on a minute! You can't possibly be serious about going on the surface world right now! Victor has troops and they've completed taking over the city. Now you want to march up into an army of users and guns? Just for some folder?" Kim hissed at them trying not to make too much noise.

"Kim, you've got to look at basic reasoning here. We won't be safe here much longer. Not to mention we have no leads on how to even hurt Victor. The folder Michael stole could very well be our only hope here. This is a risk well worth taking." Clark finished looking at her.

"He's right, we can't stay here waiting for them to come down here and kill the boy-scouts huddled around the camp fire." Rez said.

"I just don't want-"

Michael cut her off "Listen to me Kim, what happened a couple days ago was terrible, and one shouldn't have to experience that, they really shouldn't. I know your still hurt because you don't heal like Users do. I understand how you feel and your fear, but you can't come with us on this one. And we also do not have the luxury of waiting on Victor to come to us." Michael said.

"Then it's settled. Kim this won't take more than a couple hours so long as we don't start a huge war. Just wait here, hide in the subway car if someone comes in the fake cabinet and we'll come back and get you." Clark said.

Rez stood up, as did Cain.

"Oh, and Michael? You killed the user you fought right?"

"Yes, why?"

"His psychic weapon is yours then right?"

"...I suppose it is by the rules of this world."

"So, at this time wherever you are wounded you heal right? I mean you can get anything cut off and it'll grow back is that what you're saying?"

"No, it doesn't work like that, you cannot use two psychic weapons at once. I'd have to have it summoned."

"Oh, I was going to say that would be very useful...and Victor couldn't do as much to you if you were using it." Rez said looking towards the subway exit.

Clark started ahead of the two and then stopped and said "Michael, you realize how important you are right now right?"

Rez picked up on this and they both looked at him, "Look, Michael right now you're the only one who can stop Victor. So if some risk comes along that you are about to take...stop and think for a second ok? I mean, let Clark and I handle it." Rez finished crossing his arms.

"You guys don't have to tell me this, I don't think there is anything special about it though, for all we know it could have just been a glitch or something of his own fault he did, I may have had nothing to do with it." Michael said.

Kim looked at Michael and said "Look mister you are not to be taking any major risks anyway! Victor's after you, and you know he'll stop at nothing to capture or even kill you. So just get your stupid folder and come back here.

"Okay, okay I'll be more careful. Can we get moving? What time is it?"

"The current time is 3:45 P.M." Clark said looking at his pocket watch. He closed it and put it back in his pocket then put his hand on the wall temporarily stopping all the traps in the entrance.

As the four approached street level he reactivated them.

"Alright we're about 15 miles away from Michael's old apartment. How do we cover that ground so fast?" Clark asked himself.

"Cain, how did you travel to avoid the guards when you were on your own?" Clark asked.

"I just traveled at night, but I'd usually try to kill anyone I ran in to so you know it didn't really matter." Cain replied.

"That doesn't help much...we're looking for a way to avoid contact. Won't Michael's apartment be under guard? They know where he lives and was found after all."

"No, I killed them all. The most they know is that a user lived there." Michael said.

"Let's just continue on the street and if we sense someone coming or see something we'll duck for cover. I mean, we're users we can alter our way out of most situations." Clark suggested.

So the group continued on down making their way to Michael's old apartment. Everything was going good for the first five miles. They were a third of the way there when they ran into their first obstacle.

A guard unit had set up a barricade. The guard group as usual was a group of ten, one of the ten was a user, and this barricade was fortified well.

It was a cement wall at least 15 feet high and it went across from building to building with only a door in the middle.

Clark noted eight guards on this side meaning the other two were obviously patrolling or on the other side. The group of four met in an alleyway twenty feet away.

"Well what now? If we start something one of us could get hurt and that would slow us down and attract more guards." Rez said crossing his arms and leaning against the wall.

"Can we go around?" Cain suggested.

"Not likely I would be willing to bet that they have some system set up. This wall can't be altered nor can we go through one of the buildings it touches." Clark said.

"Why not? Is something preventing us?"

"Well the rule that states a user can't alter something another user is touching comes into play because I bet they have their user inside the wall. We can't alter it or the buildings it touches without removing him." Clark finished.

"Wanna test that theory?" Rez asked.

Michael lit up a cigarette and inhaled, then looked at Rez and said, "No that would take too much time...and the user on the inside of the wall, if he's there, would have the advantage of being concealed and he could attack us easily."

"Ok let's go under it then." Rez said only to be shot down again with Cain this time.

"That'd be a waste of energy, there's no sewer or subway on this street. We'd have to make a tunnel on our own and there's no way for us to know where we'd come up or if somebody would be around."

"Ok so we're screwed. Let's give up, go home, and-" Clark cut Rez off with a quick "Shut up I'm thinking!"

"If we can't go up, down, or around, we'll just go through. However we'll do it sneakily. Michael you and Cain are the most wanted, so we'll take a chance. I want you two to come over here."

Clark leaned over to a couple garbage cans and altered them into two pairs of handcuffs. He cuffed Michael and Cain.

"Rez, you and I are going to hand them over as prisoners and say we're on our way to Victor to collect the bounty on the two."

"What if they don't let us through, or send some escort with us?" Rez asked skeptical.

"Pray they don't."

"I'm an atheist, why the hell do you think I'm a drug lord?"

"Just go with the flow." Clark snapped.

Clark started pushing Michael and Rez did Cain.

As they approached the guards raised their guns.

"Freeze! Hands where I can see them!" one guard yelled.

Clark spoke first saying "I can't, my hands are keeping this guy from escape. If I let go he may make a run for it."

The guards considered this and they looked at one another and they seemed to accept this.

"Who is that?"

"This is Michael, and the other is Cain. Two fugitives who have large bounties on their heads. We want to take them to Victor." Clark said playing along.

"Alright come forward slowly." one guard said.

"Will you let us through?" Rez asked.

"No, we'll send some guards and a user to escort them, and you two will wait here for us to return with the money." a guard said taking Michael from Clark.

Rez was worried but kept a cool expression hoping Clark had a plan for this.

_As I thought they won't let us through. This means we'll simply have to let Michael and Cain through and hope they can shake their guard and make their way to the apartment on their own._ Clark thought to himself.

"Ok, we'll wait here." Clark said pulling up a chair and motioning for Rez to do the same. There was an overhang the guards were sitting under with a fire going in a garbage can.

Michael shot Clark a look that said "What do we do, do we go?" Clark just kicked back and crossed his legs as if to say "Nothing I can do, your on your own."

Michael looked at Cain who seemed to get the picture.

"Send two guards for each prisoner and send April." the guard who appeared to be in charge ordered. He motioned to four guards standing near the fire. The guards had relaxed now and some were sitting again.

"You four go, and keep a close eye on them. He fought Victor and lived, and the other took on a single squad of guards himself and lived to tell the tale."

_Big deal I can take a whole squad too..._ Rez thought skeptically to himself, though he said nothing.

A girl with long purple died hair came out of the door in the wall. She was wearing a short skirt and a purple top. She held an umbrella.

"April, you are to escort these two prisoners to headquarters with the utmost care. Then retrieve the bounty and bring it back." the leader said.

"As you wish." she said smiling at Michael.

_Damn...they're sending a user with us. This will make it harder to get away clean. I might have to kill her along with these guards._ Michael thought.

Cain and Michael were shoved through the door and they started walking.

_Good luck..._ Clark thought.

"So how did you catch them?" the leader asked sitting down close to the fire.

"It was a fierce fight, but we had drugged his food earlier so we had an edge. Cain actually fought to back him up but that's when my partner here took him out." Clark lied.

"How did you do it? Fight two users I mean." the leader asked.

"Well...we found a couple of dead guards before we found Michael and Cain and took their guns and used them. This combined with a barrage of martial arts seemed to be enough. Plus he was drugged." Clark lied some more.

Away from them April was walking closer and was practically right up against Michael as he walked.

"So you're the man who fought Victor and lived huh?" she asked lifting his sleeve to see the metal arm.

"You know you guys walked right into this one..." she said smiling.

Cain and Michael didn't think they were far enough from the gate to start anything yet so they went along with it.

"What? You're so silent. Oh well, I can't believe you all fell for it though. I mean it worked so perfect. I spun my web and you four flew right into it." she said laughing a little more.

They walked on for another mile before she halted the group and said "Well I guess we're far enough away. I can't go any further than a mile before it wears off anyway.

Michael looked at Cain and nodded.

"Oh, before you boys break out and try something you should know that you can't defeat me."

_How'd she know?! _ Michael thought.

"Oh, you two seem confused. Well for starters there are no guards." she said.

Cain realized this as he looked around.

"Guess we can just go ahead and kill you then huh?" he said altering the handcuffs as they fell off.

"Actually, there never were any guards, nor was there a wall, nor am I a member Victor's army. It was all an illusion and you four just walked up out of nowhere and presented yourselves. Your two friends are conversing with a couple of cardboard cutouts of some golfer." she said leaning over laughing.

"I've had enough of this." Cain said rushing her preparing to land a blow straight to her face with all his might.

He swung the fist forward and it went right through her! She poofed as if she wasn't even there at all. Before Cain could mutter a word of surprise he fell over unconscious. She had taken what appeared to be a baseball bat and knocked him in the back of the neck.

"You see Michael? I wasn't even in front of him. My illusions are quite powerful. One minute I'm five feet away, and the next thing you know..." she didn't finish but Michael felt himself falling He landed on a bed. It was a round bed and she was laying on one end wearing a short red dress.

"I can affect anything Michael. All five senses. Touch," she said as she ran a hand down his face.

"Smell..." she said as the scent of a lovely perfume invaded his nostrils.

"Sight." she said getting off the bed and spinning a little, doing a little dance. She bent over many times exposing her breasts.

"Sound." was heard as he was in blackness alone now. A solo voice singing the most beautiful song he had ever heard.

"and finally taste" she said as he had a sweet taste in his mouth. It was the best chocolate he'd ever tasted. A door appeared and he walked over to it and opened it.

He wasn't in the city of rain anymore, he was in a dining room overlooking a beautiful scene of a mountain range.

April sat there in the short red dress pouring a bottle wine.

"Care to join me?" she asked motioning to a seat across from her at the table.

"What's your goal? Are you intending to destroy me or date me?" Michael asked not moving an inch towards her.

"Well what does it matter? You are obviously trapped here. You can try to walk out of a door and it could end with a brick wall or I can completely restrain you all together." she said.

At once he was shackled to the wall and he couldn't move an inch. Then he was released the chains gone as if they were never there.

"What if I do escape, or kill you?" he asked.

"How do you intend? You're powerless in my realm. You can't summon your weapon or alter anything. Go ahead and try." she said almost testing him.

He put a hand on the wall, but she was right, he couldn't do anything. He tried to summon his lance with all his might, but nothing came.

"I told you, you're completely powerless in my realm. I can do anything. I can make you do anything, see anything, etc."

"Prove it!" he yelled charging her and picking up a knife that was laying on the table and going to stab her throat.

At once he was in blackness again. She was gone and then curtains raised. He was in a theater on stage. He lost all sense of feeling in his body as he was controlled somehow.

He danced, leapt, sang, and then his head raised up involuntarily. He saw a giant version of April and she had him like an old fashioned pupped and she was controlling him.

Blackness again and he was in front of a mirror. The face looking back at him was that of a twenty year old blond, she was wearing a ballet outfit and a man with a headset came into the room.

"Five minutes and your on." he said.

Michael stammered as the voice that came out of his mouth was not his own. It was that of a woman! He stood up looking down, sure enough he was in the body of a twenty year old ballet dancer. April came in.

"Ya see? There's nothing you can do. Now try to attack me again and I'll do something even worse." she said smiling evily.

"Ya know you look good like that though, I might just leave you that way."

"I've figured this out though, if I can kill you all these illusions disappear!" Michael yelled running at April and putting his hands around her throat strangling her. She stopped breathing and Michael smiled in triumph.

The only thing was, nothing was changing. Then everything went black again.

This time when the lights came up Michael was surrounded by a bunch of scary looking guys. He was the same blond only this time he looked himself over and he was completely naked! The guys in front of him were shouting and drinking.

"What in the hell?!" Michael shouted.

April was the bartender and she smiled and raised a microphone.

"Gentlemen I give you, Michele the famous nude dancer. Please enjoy her show. And if she doesn't start dancing in about thirty seconds you can drag her off stage and do what you want. We'll get a new girl up there."

"I told you something worse would come Michael. Now the way I see it you have to options, one start dancing, or two admit defeat and I'll get you out of here." April said smiling.

Michael couldn't believe any of this, it was pretty stupid.

Some of the guys started up on stage and went to grab Michael. He stamped his foot preparing to alter this man into next Tuesday. Nothing happened.

The men got closer and he raised his hand to summon his lance, again nothing happened.

One guy picked him up with such ease it shocked Michael. He had never been handled this way before. He tried to kick the guy but he was easily overpowered in this body.

"Alright! End this, I'm done." Michael shrieked in a high pitched voice.

Everything was black and Michael was back in the dining room with April sitting across the table from him.

"What is it you want?" Michael asked glad to be back in clothes and have his voice back.

"A date." she said winking at him.

"You've got to be joking. We are at war with a dangerous man, and you WANT A DATE?!" he yelled slamming his fist into the wall.

"Watch your temper, you want to go back to being Michele again?" she said taunting him.

"Yes, I want a date with the man who went hand to hand with Victor. I could care less about this whole stupid war. I don't care what happens to this stupid city. I have this power, and I want to meet a decent guy, and date him. Is that so much to comprehend?"

_I can't believe this girl! She's completely oblivious to everything and wants only her selfish interests? This is completely ridiculous...but still I don't want to go back to another horrible illusion like that last one. I guess I have no choice but to do this date thing. Kim's gonna kill me though...wait...Kim! She's my ticket out of this!_ Michael thought to himself.

"I don't think Kim would be happy if she found out I was dating someone else." Michael said sitting down in the chair.

"What?! Who is Kim?" April shrieked.

"My fiancé actually." Michael said talking like it was no big deal. He looked out the window.

"You-you're engaged? In this world?" she stammered shaking her head.

"Yep I'm afraid so, another woman already has me on a leash, and she'd kill me-" Michael was cut off by her yelling "I can't believe this! Where is she? I'll just have to kill her and-" this time it was Michael who cut her off.

He rose in an instant as shackles shout out from the floor to catch him. He couldn't move but his eyes sent the message.

"If you laid a single finger on Kim I would kill you. Without any hesitation of you being a woman, I would kill you. No illusion you can cast would hide you from death."

"I see you've fallen head over heals for this Kim. In that case I've got no choice, but to win you over. You and your group are fighting Victor? I'll just join your group and win you over myself. That's my one goal in the City of Rain." she said smiling and pointing a finger at him.

"You're gonna be on my leash pretty soon." she said.

"Fine, whatever, just lift this illusion and let me go get something."

Suddenly they were both back in the City of Rain. Cain was lying in the street still unconscious.

"What are you doing here on this side of town?"

"Heading to my old apartment, I have a file stolen from Victor there. I need it, and then I was going to head back using the data to attack Victor or learn anything I possibly can for my group." Michael said.

"It's too heavily guarded that way. I modeled my guard post after one down this road a little further. You won't make it past." she said attempting to stop him.

"We will, or we'll die trying." he said "It's that important."

"I've got a better idea, go get your friends and wait for me at my fake wall. I'll get the folder for you, and meet you there. And we'll go back to your base together. After wall I'll start winning you over by proving my usefulness." she said smiling.

"How can I trust you?" Michael asked.

"You don't really have a choice. Either do as I say or I'll turn you into Michele and send you out to the guards myself." she said.

"Whatever! Just hurry up." he said giving her directions and then picking up Cain and dragging him back to where a flabbergasted Clark and Rez were.

"Let me guess, you were talking to somebody and everything disappeared? Michael asked setting Cain down.

"What the crap man?!" Rez yelled.

"Allow me to explain..." Michael said as Cain woke up. He listened in on Michael's explanation.

By the time he was finished April showed up with a folder in her hands.

Michael approached her and took it. He looked it over and nothing appeared missing.

"So you must be April." Clark said approaching her.

"Yes I am, now can we get back to your lair or something I don't want to be in the rain anymore." she said.

"What?! There is no way you're coming back with us! We can't trust you at-"

"Shut your mouth Rez! She's coming back with us and that's final. She proved herself trustworthy." Michael raised his voice interrupting him.

Clark looked at Rez and Cain then said "Alright, you're the boss."

They started back hidden in illusion so no guards were able to detect them.

As they came close to the subway tunnel they saw something terrible. The entrance had been blown wide open and Victor's soldiers were around. Two were on the ground dead. Four more were talking.

"My traps went off..." Clark said quietly.

"My God...they found us." Rez said just as quiet.

Michael's eyes were full of panic and rage. He was about to rush forward shouting Kim's name at the top of his lungs but Clark foreseeing this altered the ground melting the into quicksand and Michael was stuck.

Rez put a hand over his mouth as he covered muffled screams.

They overheard the four guards

"Yeah she was a handful, she had a gun and everything. She killed a guy, but fortunate for us our user apprehended her and was able to knock her out. She deserves every bit of punishment she's gonna get at Victor's prison he's set up." a guard said laughing.

"I can't believe they had quite the operation running under here...we didn't think to check underground, and then that explosion went off good thing we found this place. Now rebels can't use it as a base anymore. We've got a few more squads on the way to help out." the other guard said.

Michael was furious, he would kill and kill and kill until everyone involved in this was in a twisted bloody heap of meat on the ground.

When he was finally let go the same hated still burned in his eyes.

"Rez, do you know where this prison is?" he asked through gritted teeth.

"Yes...but it's the most heavily-"

"Take me." he said cutting Rez off.

Clark looked at him in disbelief. "You'll die if you try to storm that place. I know your upset but-"

Again Michael cut him off.

He looked right at Clark and grabbed him by the shirt collar.

"Upset?! I'm not upset. I'm totally pissed off and I'm gonna completely slaughter anyone connected to this! I swear I'll get Kim out of there or die taking everybody bloody body in that place with me to Hell! Now Rez take me there!" Michael yelled, but it was all covered in April's illusion.

Michael was in a state of rage and nothing but the blood of his enemies could quench his thirst.


End file.
